A new species of Caecilia Linnaeus, 1758 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from the Pacific lowlands of Colombia, with comments on the status of C. tenuissima Taylor, 1973.

We here describe a new species of the genus Caecilia from the Pacific lowlands of Colombia that was mistaken in previous literature as C. tenuissima, but which has more primary and secondary grooves than that species (among other differences). The description of Caecilia wilkinsoni sp. nov. restricts the known distribution of C. tenuissima to Guayaquil, Ecuador, re-establishing its status as an endemic species. We comment on the type locality of C. tenuissima, the current condition of its holotype, and on the distributions of the Caecilia that inhabit the Pacific region of Colombia.

On the identities of Caecilia degenerata Dunn, 1942 and of C. corpulenta Taylor, 1968 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) with descriptions of three new species of Caecilia Linnaeus, 1758 from the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia.

The Central portion of the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia is currently reported to harbor two species of Caecilia distributed at comparable elevations on opposite versants of these Mountains. These are C. corpulenta, known from Virolín, Santander, at 1700-2000 m on the western slopes of the Cordillera Oriental and C. degenerata, known from Garagoa, Boyacá, and Choachí and Fomequé, Cundinamarca, at 1800-2100 m on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Oriental. Both species have dermal scales and lack secondary grooves, and have been subjected to misidentifications by herpetologists studying the Gymnophiona of the Eastern Andes of Colombia. Our results indicate that only the latter species is found in Colombia and the former is restricted to Peru, leaving those populations previously referred to C. corpulenta and those distinct from C. degenerata pending names. We here present an account for C. degenerata based on material from Choachí and Fómeque, Cundinamarca, as well as descriptions of three new species from the Cordillera Oriental and adjacent Venezuela: C. atelolepis sp. nov., C. epicrionopsoides sp. nov., and C. macrodonta sp. nov. We also provide additional morphological information for the recently described C. pulchraserrana.

Type specimens housed in the herpetological collections at Museo de La Salle Bogotá and their historical importance for the consolidation of herpetology in Colombia.

We present a catalog of type specimens deposited in the Herpetological collections at the Museo de La Salle (MLS), Bogotá, Colombia. The list includes 85 type specimens comprising 36 holotypes and 49 paratypes. Also, we include the types belonging to other institutions, corrections in the catalog numbers and localities, additions and updates to the information in the original descriptions, as well as rediscovery of material that was considered lost until now.

Rediscovery of the rare Andean blindsnake Anomalepis colombia Marx 1953 (Serpentes: Anomalepididae) in the wild.

The fossorial snake genus Anomalepis Jan 1860 currently comprises four species with distribution restricted to the Neotropics, occurring from Nicaragua to trans-Andean Peru. Species of Anomalepis occur on the mainland from sea level to about 2,700 m elevation in habitats that range from xerophyte vegetation to tropical wet forests (Kofron 1988; McDiarmid et al. 1999; Uetz et al. 2019; Wallach et al. 2014). Kofron (1988) performed a taxonomic review of the genus Anomalepis, recognizing two phenotypic clusters of species: the A. mexicanus Jan 1860 composed exclusively by its nominal form, and the A. aspinosus Taylor 1939 group consisting of the former species, A. colombia Marx 1953 (Fig. 1) and A. flavapices Peters 1957. While Anomalepis aspinosus occurs in xerophytic formation from 500-2700 above sea level (asl hereafter) along the Peruvian Andes (Kofron 1988; McDiarmid et al. 1999; Wallach et al. 2014), and Anomalepis flavapices is found in the coastal rainforest plains of northwestern Ecuador (Kofron 1988; Wallach et al. 2014), Anomalepis mexicanus presents the most widespread distribution amongst its congeners, occurring in northeastern Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama from sea level to 725 m altitude. Even though this species has previously been recorded for Peru (Kofron, 1988), it seems unlikely that this specimen belongs to A. mexicanus due to its distinct meristic features (see Kofron 1988) and its outlandish record (see Fig. 2). Marx (1953) described Anomalepis colombia based on a single specimen collected in 1946 by Kjell von Sneidern at La Selva (05º25'23N, 74º57'44W; 1700 m asl), municipality of Pueblo Rico, department of Caldas, Colombia. As far as we know, since its original description, no additional specimen of A. colombia has been reported in literature (cf. Kofron 1988; McDiarmid et al. 1999; Wallach et al. 2014).

Species delimitations in the Atractus collaris complex (Serpentes: Dipsadidae).

We reassessed the taxonomic status of the species in the Atractus collaris complex (A. alphonsehogei, A. collaris, A. limitaneus, and A. gaigeae) on the basis of congruence between quantitative and qualitative morphological characters (meristic, morphometric, color pattern, hemipenis, and scale microdematoglyphics) along its wide geographical distribution. Our results support the recognition of three species with apparently fixed diagnostic characters. We propose the synonymization of Atractus limitaneus with A. collaris based on the wide overlap of all morphological character systems here analyzed, as well as on the basis of examination of the holotype and two topotypes of A. limitaneus. Finally, we discuss the geographical variation and morphological distinction of A. alphonsehogei, A. collaris and A. gaigeae. Furthermore, we provide a dichotomous key for all recognized species in the A. collaris species group.

Thermal tolerance in anuran embryos with different reproductive modes: relationship to altitude.

Anurans are ectothermic animals very sensitive to temperature, mainly during the embryonic stage. In addition, environmental temperature decreases with altitude, and the amphibian fauna changes. Therefore, we studied the relationship between the embryonic thermal tolerances of twelve species of anurans and the temperatures of their microhabitat along an altitudinal gradient from 430 m to 2600 m. We hypothesized that there is a strong thermal adjustment of embryos to their microhabitat and, consequently, that temperature could be a limiting factor of altitudinal distribution of the anurans. We also compared the embryonic thermal tolerances according to six postulated reproductive modes of the study species. We found a significant relationship between the maximum and minimum thermal tolerances of the anuran embryos and the maximum and minimum temperatures of their microhabitat and altitudinal distribution. We also found a wide range of embryonic thermal tolerances for aquatic breeding species and a narrower range for terrestrial breeding species. Particularly, embryos of direct development species were the most sensitive to temperature. These results show the strong thermal adjustment of anuran embryos to their microhabitat and elevation and do not reject the hypothesis that temperature can be a limiting factor of their altitudinal distribution.