Two new species of snail-eating snakes of the genus Tropidodipsas (Serpentes, Dipsadidae) from southern Mexico, with notes on related species

By

Grünwald, Christoph I
Toribio-Jiménez, Sarahi
Montaño-Ruvalcaba, Carlos E
Franz-Chávez, Héctor
Peñaloza-Montaño, Miguel A.
Barrera-Nava, Eduardo Y.
Jones, Jason M
Rodriguez, Christopher M
Hughes, India M.
Strickland, Jason L.
Reyes-Velasco, Jacobo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021-11-11

Original Publication

Herpetozoa

Volume

34

Pages

233--257

Subjects

Bosque de niebla , bosque de pino-encino , cloud forest , Conservación , Conservation , Geophis , Guerrero , Kiefern-Eichen Wald , Naturschutz , Nebelwald , Oaxaca , pine-oak woodland , Sierra Madre del Sur

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.34.e69176

 

Abstract

We describe two new species of Tropidodipsas related to the T. fasciata species group as defined by Kofron (1987), and provide morphological and molecular data to support the novelty of both species. A partial molecular phylogeny of the Mexican species of snail-eating snakes (Serpentes, Dipsadidae) is presented, and we discuss evolutionary relationships as supported by our molecular results. We analyze specific relationships of the new species described herein with their closest relatives. We present a distribution map for all species of Tropidodipsas and include photographs of living individuals of each species. Finally, we discuss other taxonomic changes based on our molecular phylogeny as well as conservation priorities of the new species.