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A new Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from southern Espinhaço Range, southeastern Brazil

Abstracts

A new species of Amphisbaena is described from a semi-deciduous forest in Conceição do Mato Dentro, southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The following combined characters can diagnose the new species from all congeners: head round-shaped; two or three precloacal pores sequentially arranged; 190-199 body annuli; 2-3 lateral annuli; 23-25 caudal annuli; autotomy sites on caudal annuli 7-9; 12-14 dorsal segments on midbody annulus; 14-16 ventral segments on midbody annulus; three supralabials; three infralabials; postmalar row present or absent; dorsum light brown, with cream intersegmental sutures; venter cream. To date, the new species is known only from the Espinhaço Range, highlighting the importance of conservation actions for these mountains.

Minas Gerais; taxonomy; Amphisbaenia; Fossorial reptile


Uma nova espécie de Amphisbaena é descrita de uma floresta semidecidual em Conceição do Mato Dentro, sul da Cadeia do Espinhaço, Minas Gerais, Brasil. A seguinte combinação de caracteres permite diagnosticar a nova espécie das demais congêneres: cabeça arredondada; dois ou três poros pré-cloacais dispostos em sequência; 190-199 annuli corporais; 2-3 annuli laterais; 23-25 annuli caudais; plano de autotomia nos annuli caudais 7-9; 12-14 segmentos dorsais no annulus do meio do corpo; 14-16 segmentos ventrais no annulus do meio do corpo; três supralabiais; três infralabiais; fileira pós-malar presente ou ausente; dorso marrom-claro, com suturas intersegmentares creme; ventre creme. Até o momento a nova espécie é conhecida apenas para a Cadeia do Espinhaço, ressaltando a importância de ações de conservação para essas montanhas.

Minas Gerais; taxonomia; Amphis baenia; réptil fossorial


INTRODUCTION

Amphisbaenia is a group of annulate squamates adapted to fossorial life, with about 190 valid extant species (Pianka and Vitt 2003PIANKA ER AND VITT LJ. 2003. Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 333 p., Uetz and Hošek 2014UETZ P AND HOšEK J. 2014. The Reptile Database, http://www.reptile-database.org [accessed 09.V.2014].
http://www.reptile-database.org...
), widely distributed in South America, Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, eastern and sub-Saharan Africa, Morocco, Algeria and Turkey, besides the Arabian and Iberian peninsulas (Pianka and Vitt 2003PIANKA ER AND VITT LJ. 2003. Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 333 p., Vidal et al. 2008VIDAL N, AZVOLINSKy A, CRUAUD C AND HEDGES SB. 2008. Origin of tropical American burrowing reptiles by transatlantic rafting. Biol Lett 4: 115-118.). The monophyly of Amphisbaenia is well supported (Kearney 2003KEARNEy M. 2003. Systematics of the Amphisbaenia (Lepi dosauria: Squamata) based on morphological evidence from recent and fossils forms . Herpetol Monogr 17: 1-74., Macey et al. 2004MACEy JR, PAPENFUSS TJ, KUEHL JV, FOURCADE HM AND BOORE JL. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships among amphisbaenian reptiles based on complete mitochondrial genomic sequences. Mol Phylogenet Evol 33: 22-31.), but its placement within Squamata is still uncertain (e.g. Kearney 2003KEARNEy M. 2003. Systematics of the Amphisbaenia (Lepi dosauria: Squamata) based on morphological evidence from recent and fossils forms . Herpetol Monogr 17: 1-74., Pianka and Vitt 2003PIANKA ER AND VITT LJ. 2003. Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 333 p., Kearney and Stuart 2004KEARNEy M AND STUART BL. 2004. Repeated evolution of limblessness and digging heads in worm lizards revealed by DNA from old bones. Proc R Soc B 271: 1677-1683., Macey et al. 2004MACEy JR, PAPENFUSS TJ, KUEHL JV, FOURCADE HM AND BOORE JL. 2004. Phylogenetic relationships among amphisbaenian reptiles based on complete mitochondrial genomic sequences. Mol Phylogenet Evol 33: 22-31., Conrad 2008CONRAD JL. 2008. Phylogeny and systematics of Squamata (Reptilia) based on morphology. Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 310: 1-182., Gauthier et al. 2012GAUTHIER JA, KEARNEy M, MAISANO JA, RIEPPEL O AND BEHIKE ADB. 2012. Assembling the Squamate Tree of Life: perspectives from the phenotype and the fossil record. Bull Peabody Mus Nat Hist 53: 3-308., Pyron et al. 2013PyRON RA, BURbRINK FT AND WIENS JJ. 2013. A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes. BMC Evol Biol 13: 1-53.). Recently, the generic status of the South America amphisbaenids suffered a significant taxonomic rearrangement, with five genus (Anops, Aulura, Bronia, Cercolophia and Leposternon) synonymized into Amphisbaena (Mott and Vieites 2009MOTT T and VIEITES DR. 2009. Molecular phylogenetics reveals extreme morphological homoplasy in Brazilian worm lizards challenging current taxonomy. Mol Phylogenet Evol 51: 190-200.), a condition still not fully adopted (e.g. Ribeiro et al. 2012RIbEIRO S, NOGUEIRA C, CINTRA CED, SILVA NJ AND ZAHER H. 2012. [dated 2011] Description of a New Pored Leposternon (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae) from the Brazilian Cerrado. South Am J Herpetol 6: 177-188.).

A total of 72 species of amphisbaenids are known to occur in Brazil, however, the group's biodiversity is still poorly known, with many taxa discovered in the last 15 years (Costa and Bérnils 2014COSTA HC AND BÉRNILS RS. 2014. Répteis brasileiros: Lista de espécies. Herpetol Bras 3: 74-84.). Since the year 2000, 19 new amphisbaenid species were described in Brazil, representing 26% of its current richness. Besides the fossorial habits making amphisbaenids hard to find and collect, many Brazilian species named in the last decades were discovered during environmental impact assessments and wildlife rescues (see Ribeiro et al. 2008RIbEIRO S, VAZ-SILVA W AND SANTOS AP Jr. 2008. New pored Leposternon (Squamata, Amphisbaenia) from Brazilian Cerrado. Zootaxa 1930: 18-38. for a short review, Ribeiro et al. 2012RIbEIRO S, NOGUEIRA C, CINTRA CED, SILVA NJ AND ZAHER H. 2012. [dated 2011] Description of a New Pored Leposternon (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae) from the Brazilian Cerrado. South Am J Herpetol 6: 177-188., Roberto et al. 2014RObERTO IJ, BRITO LBM AND ÁVILA RW. 2014. A new six-pored Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from the coastal zone of northeast Brazil . Zootaxa 3753: 167-176., Teixeira et al. 2014TEIXEIRA M, DAL VECHIO F, MOLLO NETO A AND RODRIGUES MT. 2014. A New Two-Pored Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758, from Western Amazonia, Brazil (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) . South Am J Herpetol 9: 62-74.). During an environmental impact assessment between August 2009 and May 2010 in Conceição do Mato Dentro, southern Espinhaço Range, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, specimens of a small Amphisbaena were collected, which we concluded to belong to a new species described below.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Specimens were found and collected by hand, during deforestation activities for the installation of a slurry pipeline in Conceição do Mato Dentro, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. Scale nomenclature follows Gans and Alexander (1962)GANS C AND ALEXANDER AA. 1962 . Studies on the amphisbaenids (Amphisbaenia; Reptilia) 2On the amphisbaenids of the Antilles. Bull Mus Comp Zool 128: 65-158. and Teixeira et al. (2014)TEIXEIRA M, DAL VECHIO F, MOLLO NETO A AND RODRIGUES MT. 2014. A New Two-Pored Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758, from Western Amazonia, Brazil (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) . South Am J Herpetol 9: 62-74.; morphometric measures were taken to the nearest 0.1 mm with a caliper, except for the snout-vent and tail lengths, which were measured with a flexible ruler to the nearest 1.0 mm. Body slenderness proportion (BSP) (snout-vent length / head width) follows Pinna et al. (2014)PINNA PH, MENDONÇA AF, BOCCHIGLIERI A AND FERNANDES DS. 2014. A New Species of Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758 from a Cerrado Region in Bahia, Northeastern Brazil (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) . Herpetologica 70: 339-349.. Specimens were collected under permit #400/2009 NUFAS/MG provided by Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA) and deposited in the collections of Fundação Ezequiel Dias (FUNED) and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Comparative data were taken from literature and specimens in the herpetological collections of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (CHFURG), Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP) and Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues collection (MTR) (Table SI - Supplementary Material; Appendix).

The ZooBank Life Science Identifier (LSID) of this publication is: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FD9F4C2A-E6CF-4B33-B805-46DD1317702D.

RESULTS

AMPHISBAENA METALLURGA SP. NOV.

ZooBank Life Science Identifier (LSID) - urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E74873DF-8074-4E39-B23F-1FAC0AD21C46.

Holotype. FUNED 2943 (Fig. 1A-G), collected in August 2009 or May 2010 (no specific date available), by Dimitri Lima Gouvêa and Sarita Pimenta de Oliveira.

Figure 1
Holotype of Amphisbaena metallurga sp. nov. (FUNED 2943). A) head in dorsal view; B) head in lateral view; C) head in ventral view; D) detail of body dorsum; E) detail of body venter F) detail of cloacal region; G) ventral view of cloaca and tail (an incision at tail base was made to sex the specimen). Scale bars = 1 mm. Photographs by Bárbara F. Zaidan (A-F) and Flávia C. Resende (G).

Type-locality. Brazil: Minas Gerais: Conceição do Mato Dentro, semi-deciduous seasonal forest, ca. 18°54′ S, 43°25′ W, 700 m elevation, southern Espinhaço Range (Fig. 2).

Figure 2
Map representing the type locality of Amphisbaena metallurga sp. nov. (FUNED 2943) in Conceição do Mato Dentro, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Paratypes. FUNED 2940-2942, 2944, 2945, 2947-2949, 2951-2960, UFMG 2080 (ex. FUNED 2946), 2081 (ex FUNED 2950), collected in August 2009 or May 2010 (no specific date available) by Dimitri Lima Gouvêa and Sarita Pimenta de Oliveira. All paratypes from the type-locality.

Diagnosis.Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. is diagnosed by the following combination of characters: (1) head round-shaped; (2) two or three precloacal pores sequentially arranged; (3) 190-199 body annuli; (4) 2-3 lateral annuli; (5) 23-25 caudal annuli; (6) autotomy plan on 7th - 9th caudal annulus; (7) 12-14 dorsal segments on midbody annulus; (8) 14-16 ventral segments on midbody annulus; (9) three supralabials; (10) three infralabials; (11) postmalar row usually present; (12) body slenderness proportion from 32.6 to 38.3; (13) dorsum of preserved specimens light brown, with cream intersegmental sutures; (14) venter of preserved specimens cream colored.

Comparison with other species. The presence of two or three precloacal pores makes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. readily distinguishable from all South American congeners with the exception of A. absaberi, A. anaemariae, A. anomala, A. angustifrons, A. bilabialata, A. bolivica, A. brevis, A. caiari, A. camura, A.carli, A. cerradensis, A. crisae, A. cuiabana, A. darwinii, A. dubia, A. heterozonata, A. hiata, A. kisteumacheri, A. leeseri, A. lumbricalis, A. maxima, A. miringoera, A. mitchelli, A. neglecta, A. persephone, A. polystega, A. roberti and A. silvestrii. Among these species (characters inside parentheses), the rounded head easily distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. anomala, A. cerradensis, A. kisteumacheri, A. maxima, A. polystega (head shovel-shaped) and A. bilabialata (head keel-shaped). Therefore, these six species are excluded from following comparisons.

The rounded tail distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. trachura (caudal tip tuberculate), A. absaberi, A. cuiabana and A. roberti (tail with a terminal vertical keel). The rostral without median contact with prefrontals distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. carli (rostral in broad contact with prefrontals). The presence of precloacal pores arranged in sequence distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. absaberi, A. carli and A. hiata (precloacal pores separated from each other by segments).

The presence of 190-199 body annuli distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. absaberi (239-242), A. anaemaeriae (156-170), A. bolivica (200-231), A. brevis (139), A. caiari (233-250), A. carli (221-248), A. crisae (180-185), A. cuiabana (283-320), A. dubia (211-231), A. hiata (202-213), A. leeseri (216-249), A. lumbricalis (225-247), A. miringoera (250-264), A. mitchelli (203-220), A. neglecta (151-161), A. persephone (230-241) and A. roberti (232-265). The presence of 23-25 caudal annuli distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. absaberi (14-15), A. anaemaeriae (18-20), A. angustifrons (12-18), A. brevis (9), A. camura (14-19), A. carli (10-14), A. crisae (20-22), A. cuiabana (17-21), A. dubia (13-18), A. heterozonata (13-18), A. hiata (17-19), A. leeseri (14-19), A. mitchelli (26-29), A. neglecta (14-16) , A. persephone (19-22) and A. roberti (17-20). Autotomy in annuli 7-9 distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. absaberi (5-6), A. anaemaeriae (3-5), A. angustifrons (autotomy absent), A. bolivica (3-5), A. camura (3-5), A. carli (autotomy absent), A. crisae (4-6), A. dubia (autotomy absent), and A. neglecta (4-6).

The presence of 12-14 dorsal segments distinguishes Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. from A. brevis (18) and A. caiari (10). The number of both dorsal and ventral segments (12-14 / 14-16) distinguishes the new species from A. absaberi (16-19 / 17-20), A. angustifrons (20-31 / 21-30), A. bolivica (27-38 / 26-36), A. camura (28-42 / 29-46), A. carli (20-23 / 18-23), A. crisae (10 / 10) and A. hiata (16-18 / 18-22). A summary of morphological characters for two-pored and three-pored Amphisbaena is provided in Table SI.

Despite the differences above mentioned, the new species is more similar to Amphisbaena darwinii, A. heterozonata, A. prunicolor, A. trachura and A. silvestrii in the traditional meristic data, but can be further distinguished by the following characters: From A. prunicolor by the number of precloacal pores (two or three in A. metallurgasp. nov. and four in A. prunicolor), and color pattern (light brown dorsally and cream ventrally in A. metallurgasp. nov., and dark brown dorsally and ventrally (sometimes checkered) in A. prunicolor) (see Perez et al. 2012PEREZ R, RIbEIRO S AND BORGES-MARTINS M. 2012. Reappraisal of the taxonomic status of Amphisbaena prunicolor (Cope 1885) and Amphisbaena albocingulata Boettger 1885 (Amphisbaenia: Amphisbaenidae). Zootaxa 3550: 1-25. for pictures of A. prunicolor). From A. silvestrii the new species can be distinguished by the shape of the third infralabial (as long as the third supralabial in A. metallurgasp. nov. and about 1.5-2 times longer than the third supralabial in A. silvestrii), and color pattern (dark brown dorsally and ventrally in A. silvestrii). Additionally, A. metallurgasp. nov. usually presents a postmalar row (see Table I for exceptions), absent in A. silvestrii.

Specimens of A. darwinii, A. heterozonata and A. trachura usually present four precloacal pores, but some A. darwinii and A. heterozonata have two or three and some A. trachura have three pores, as in A. metallurgasp. nov. In this case, A. metallurgasp. nov. can be distinguished from A. darwinii, A. heterozonata and A. trachura by the color pattern. Dorsally, preserved specimens of those three species are dark brown, while A. metallurgasp. nov. is light brown. Additionally, A. trachura presents a tuberculate caudal tip, absent in specimens of the new species, and A. heterozonata has a fewer number of caudal annuli (see above).

Description of the holotype. A small male amphisbaenian (snout-vent length 178 mm; caudal length 30 mm; BSP 36.5); head short (7.0 mm, 3.9% of snout-vent length), rounded and hardly distinct from the neck; rostrum rounded, projecting beyond the lower jaw. Rostral triangular, barely visible in dorsal view, in broad contact with nasals laterally and in narrow contact with first supralabial, latero-posteriorly. One pair of quadrangular nasals, with a middorsal suture of 1.14 mm (15.7% of head length), in broad contact with the rostral anteriorly, first supralabial laterally and prefrontals posteriorly, and in point contact with second supralabials. Nostrils placed in the antero-lateral portion of nasal shields. A pair of trapezoid prefrontals, with a middorsal suture of 2.17 mm (28.6% of head length), in broad contact with nasals anteriorly, in point contact with first supralabial latero-anteriorly, broad contact with second supralabial laterally, ocular latero-posteriorly, and frontals posteriorly. Right prefrontal with a point contact with right postocular. A pair of triangular frontals, converging posteriorly, with a middorsal suture of 2.04 mm (28.6% of head length), in point contact with dorsal angle of oculars laterally, in contact with prefrontals anteriorly, postoculars latero-posteriorly, and parietals posteriorly. Two pentagonal parietal shields, wider than long, with a middorsal suture of 0.7 mm (10% of head length), in broad contact with postocular latero-anteriorly, frontal anteriorly, second body annulus posteriorly, and other scales of first body annulus latero-posteriorly. Ocular pentagonal, in broad contact with second and third supralabials ventrally, prefrontal and postocular dorsally, in narrow contact with temporal posteriorly, and in point contact with frontals. Eye barely visible in anterior corner of ocular. Temporals quadrangular, contacting ocular anteriorly, postocular dorsally, third supralabial ventro-anteriorly, postsupralabial ventro-posteriorly, and first body annulus dorso-posteriorly.

Three supralabials, first triangular, longer than wide, and lower than other supralabials, contacting narrowly the rostral latero-anteriorly, contacting broadly the nasal dorsally, second supralabial posteriorly, and in point contact with prefrontal. Second supralabial pentagonal, highest and longest than others, in broad contact with the prefrontal dorsally, ocular dorso-posteriorly, third supralabial posteriorly, and in point contact with nasal. Third supralabial pentagonal, higher than wide, and narrower than other supralabials, in broad contact with postsupralabial posteriorly, temporal dorso-posteriorly, second supralabial anteriorly and ocular dorso-anteriorly.

Mental shield trapezoidal, contacting postmental posteriorly and first infralabials laterally. Postmental heptagonal, elongated, longer than wide, contacting postgenials posteriorly, second infralabials laterally, first infralabials latero-anteriorly, and mental anteriorly. One irregular row of postgenials, with eight scales of different sizes, in contact with postmental, second infralabials, malars, and postmalar row. Postmalar row with seven shields. Three infralabias, first trapezoid, the second pentagonal and largest, third rectangular, the smallest and wider than high. First infralabial contacting mental anteriorly, postmental laterally, and second infralabial posteriorly; second infralabial contacts postmental laterally, postgenials latero-posteriorly, malar and third infralabial posteriorly; third infralabial contacting postinfralabial posteriorly, malar latero-anteriorly, and first shield of postmalar row latero-posteriorly.

Dorsally the first body annulus includes postsupralabials, parietals, and two scales between them on each side. Ventrally it includes the postinfralabials and segments between them. There are 192 body annuli, with 12 quadrangular dorsal segments and 14 quadrangular ventral segments (central ventral segments wider than the others); dorsal and ventral sulci absent and lateral sulci visible from 17th body annulus to cloacal shields. Two precloacal pores are visible, sequentially arranged in posterior portion of the last ventral annulus. The holotype also presents six precloacal scales and 14 postcloacal scales, three lateral annuli, 25 caudal annuli, with autotomy plan in the ninth caudal annulus, and tip of tail not compressed into a vertical keel.

In preservative, dorsal color is light brown; center of segments is darker, with cream intersegmental sutures. Venter uniformly cream colored. Head uniformly cream. In life, head uniformly light pink, dorsal segments brown with pink intersegmental sutures, and ventral segments uniformly light pink (CAC pers. obs.).

Intraspecific variation. Meristic and morph ometric variations of the type-series are present in Table I. Some additional variation in cephalic shields and scales were observed. There is no contact between temporal and ocular of the left side in UFMG 2080, FUNED 2954, FUNED 2955, FUNED 2959, and of both sides in FUNED 2948, FUNED 2949, FUNED 2952, FUNED 2953 and FUNED 2960; in these specimens the temporal contacts the postocular dorsally, third supralabial ventro-anteriorly, postsupralabial ventro-posteriorly, and the first body annulus dorso-posteriorly. Additionally, FUNED 2955 has the right temporal fused with the first body annulus. FUNED 2947 and FUNED 2951 have an additional small pair of shields between prefrontals and frontals, apparently formed by the division of the anterior portion of frontals. In FUNED 2947 the additional pair is half the length of frontals. In FUNED 2951 the additional pair has about 1/4 of frontal length.

TABLE I
Meristic and morphometric variations (in millimeters) of the type-series of Amphisbaena metallurga sp. nov. SVL = snout-vent length; TL = tail length; HW = head width; BSP = body slenderness proportion (SVL/HW); POR = number of precloacal pores; PeC = number of precloacal scales on cloacal shield; PoC = number of postcloacal scales on cloacal shield; BA = number of midbody annuli; LA = number of lateral annuli; CA = number of caudal annuli; AA = autotomy annulus; DS = number of dorsal segments; VS = number of ventral segments; PMR = number of scales in postmalar row; GEN = number of genial scales (scales of 1st row + of 2nd row). Specimens with a + symbol after SVL have only the anterior part of body.

Distribution. The new species is known only for the type-locality, in semi-deciduous seasonal forests of Conceição do Mato Dentro, Minas Gerais, Brazil, a region inside the Espinhaço Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO 2011UNESCO. 2011. Espinhaço Range. UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory, http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?mode=all&code=BRA+06 [accessed 22.I.2014].
http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/dir...
) (Fig. 2).

Etymology. The specific name of the new species is a transliteration of the Greek µεταλλουργος (metalloyrgos), meaning "miner" (Liddle and Scott 1996). It is here used as an adjective that agrees in gender with the generic name. The name refers to the fossorial habits of amphisbaenians, which use the head to dig underground tunnels like a miner. Paradoxically, this new "mining reptile" was found in the area where a slurry pipeline is being installed. "Miner" is also the translation of the Portuguese words "mineiro" and "mineira", masculine and feminine adjectives referring to native inhabitants of the state of Minas Gerais, where the new species was discovered.

DISCUSSION

The Espinhaço Mountain Range in eastern Brazil is a large Precambrian orogenic belt extending over 1000 km in the North-South direction from the state of Bahia to the state of Minas Gerais, with elevations reaching 2000 meters (Leite et al. 2008LEITE FSF, JUNCÁ FA AND ETEROVICK PC. 2008. Status do conhe cimento, endemismo e conservação de anfíbios anuros da Cadeia do Espinhaço, Brasil. Megadiversidade 4: 158-176., UNESCO 2011UNESCO. 2011. Espinhaço Range. UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory, http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?mode=all&code=BRA+06 [accessed 22.I.2014].
http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/dir...
). In its center-south portion, the Espinhaço is at the transition zone between the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest (UNESCO 2011UNESCO. 2011. Espinhaço Range. UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory, http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?mode=all&code=BRA+06 [accessed 22.I.2014].
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). This mountain range is considered one of the most important centers of endemism of Brazilian biodiversity (Silva et al. 2008SILVA JA, MACHADO RB, AZEVEDO AA, DRUMOND GM, FONSECA RL, GOULART MF, MORAES JÚNIOR EA, MARTINS CS AND RAMOS NETO MB. 2008. Identificação de áreas insubstituíveis para conservação da Cadeia do Espinhaço, estados de Minas Gerais e Bahia. Megadiversidade 4: 248-270.).

The southern region of the Espinhaço Mountain Range is under several human activities impacting natural environments, such as agriculture, livestock, and mining (Drummond et al. 2005DRUMMOND GM, MARTINS CS, MACHADO ABM, SEbAIO FA AND ANTONINI Y. 2005. Biodiversidade em Minas Gerais: Um Atlas para a Conservação. Belo Horizonte: Fundação Biodiversitas, 122 p.). The type-locality of Amphisbaena metallurgasp. nov. was directly impacted by the installation of a slurry pipeline. However, including this species in any category of conservation threat would be premature, since other fragments of semi-deciduous seasonal forests are still present close to the type-locality. Therefore, we suggest the inclusion of A. metallurgasp. nov. in IUCN's Data Deficient category at global, national and regional levels.

Based on the current knowledge of geographic distribution, five other amphisbaenian species occur in southern Espinhaço: A. alba, A. dubia, A. infraorbitale, A. microcephala and A. vermicularis (Gans and Amdur 1966GANS C. 1966. Studies on amphisbaenids (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) 3The small species from southern South America commonly identified as Amphisbaena darwini . Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 134: 185-260., Gans 1971aGANS C. . 1971a. Studies on Amphisbaenians (Amphisbaenia, Reptilia) 4 A Review of the Amphisbaenid genus Leposternon. Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 144: 379-464., Perez and Ribeiro 2008PEREZ R AND RIBEIRO SLB. 2008. Reptilia, Squamata, Amphisbaenidae, Leposternon spp.: Distribution extension, new state record, and geographic distribution map. Check List 4: 291-294., HCC pers. obs.). A. metallurgasp. nov. can be easily distinguished from A. alba (characters inside parentheses) by having fewer precloacal pores (4-10) and midbody annuli (198-248), tail with autotomy annulus (non autotomic tail), and fewer dorsal and ventral segments (30-42 / 35-46) (Vanzolini 2002VANZOLINI PE. 2002. An aid to the identification of the south American species of Amphisbaena (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae). Pap Avulsos Zool 42: 351-362.). From A. dubia (characters inside parentheses) A. metallurgasp. nov. is distinguished by having fewer midbody annuli (211-231), longer tail with autotomy annulus (13-18 caudal annuli without autotomy), and third infralabial as long as the third supralabial (third infralabial two times longer than third supralabial) (Table SI, Gans 1964aGANS C. 1964a. Redescription of Amphisbaena dubia Müller (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia). Brevivora 205: 1-11.). The new species can be distinguished from A. vermicularis (characters inside parentheses) by having fewer precloacal pores (4) and midbody annuli (211-254), and fewer dorsal and ventral segments (18-26 / 18-25) (Gans and Amdur 1966GANS C. 1966. Studies on amphisbaenids (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) 3The small species from southern South America commonly identified as Amphisbaena darwini . Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 134: 185-260., Vanzolini 2002VANZOLINI PE. 2002. An aid to the identification of the south American species of Amphisbaena (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae). Pap Avulsos Zool 42: 351-362.). Finally, it can be distinguished from A. infraorbitale and A. microcephala by the head shape, which is shovel-shaped in the last two species.

Morphological similarities among Amphis baena metallurgasp. nov., A. darwinii, A. heterozonata, A. prunicolor, A. silvestrii and A. trachura would suggest a close phylogenetic relationship despite their current distributions ( Gans 1966GANS C. 1966. Studies on amphisbaenids (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) 3The small species from southern South America commonly identified as Amphisbaena darwini . Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 134: 185-260., Perez et al. 2012PEREZ R, RIbEIRO S AND BORGES-MARTINS M. 2012. Reappraisal of the taxonomic status of Amphisbaena prunicolor (Cope 1885) and Amphisbaena albocingulata Boettger 1885 (Amphisbaenia: Amphisbaenidae). Zootaxa 3550: 1-25., Teixeira et al. 2014TEIXEIRA M, DAL VECHIO F, MOLLO NETO A AND RODRIGUES MT. 2014. A New Two-Pored Amphisbaena Linnaeus, 1758, from Western Amazonia, Brazil (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia) . South Am J Herpetol 9: 62-74.). However, considering that some morphological characters of amphisbaenids are shared by convergence (Mott and Vieites 2009MOTT T and VIEITES DR. 2009. Molecular phylogenetics reveals extreme morphological homoplasy in Brazilian worm lizards challenging current taxonomy. Mol Phylogenet Evol 51: 190-200.) it is premature to assume if similarities among the above cited species represent synapomorphies instead of convergences.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Giselle A. Cotta for allowing access to specimens under her care; Paulo C.A. Garcia for allowing the use of the stereomicroscope with photographic equipment at the Laboratório de Herpetologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Bárbara F. Zaidan for photographs of the holotype; Samuel C. Gomides for aiding with specimens from UFMG; Daniel Loebmann, Miguel T. Rodrigues and Husssam Zaher for allowing access to specimens under their care; three anonymous reviewers for comments on improving the manuscript; and Tim Williams for etymology suggestions. HCC thanks the staff at Instituto de Ciências Biológicas at Universidade Federal de Viçosa - Campus Florestal, for access to facilities.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    Apr-Jun 2015

History

  • Received
    20 Feb 2014
  • Accepted
    25 Nov 2014
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