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Description of a new Epictia Gray, 1845 on specimens housed for more than 100 years in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna

AutorInnen: 
Koch, C., Martins, A., Schweiger, S.
Erscheinungsjahr: 
2019
Vollständiger Titel: 
A century of waiting: description of a new Epictia Gray, 1845 (Serpentes:Leptotyphlopidae) based on specimens housed for more than 100 years in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna (NMW)
ZFMK-Autorinnen / ZFMK-Autoren: 
Org. Einordnung: 
Publiziert in: 
PeerJ
Publikationstyp: 
Elektronische Publikation
DOI Name: 
doi:10.7717/peerj.7411
Keywords: 
Burrowing snakes, Epictinae, Thread snakes, Fossorial snakes, Slender blind snakes, Systematics, High resolution x-ray tomography, Osteology, Pholidosis, Squamata
Bibliographische Angaben: 
Koch, C., Martins, A., Schweiger, S. (2019): A century of waiting: description of a new Epictia Gray, 1845 (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) based on specimens housed for more than 100 years in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna (NMW). - PeerJ 7:e7411 http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7411
Abstract: 

We describe a new species of Epictia based on eight specimens from Nicaragua collected and housed in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna for more than a century. The species differs from the congeners by the combination of external morphological characters: midtail scale rows 10; supralabials two, anterior one large and in broad contact with supraocular; infralabials four; subcaudals 14–19; middorsal scale rows 250–267; supraocular scales present; frontal scale distinct; striped dorsal color pattern with more or less triangular dark blotches on each scale; small white blotch in anterior part of dorsal surface of rostral present in five out of six specimens (two further specimens are lacking their heads); terminal spine and adjacent scales white. Eidonomic species separation from other Epictia spp. is also supported by a few qualitative and quantitative differences in vertebrae count and morphology. The new species is putatively assigned to the Epictia phenops species group based on external morphological characters and distribution.

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