A new species of Bothrops (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalinae) from Pampas del Heath, southeastern Peru, with comments on the systematics of the Bothrops neuwiedi species group

Author(s)

Carrasco, Paola A. ^{[1, 2]} ; Grazziotin, Felipe G. ^[3] ; Cruz Farfan, Roy Santa ^[4] ; Koch, Claudia ^[5] ; Antonio Ochoa, Jose ^{[6, 7, 8]} ; Scrocchi, Gustavo J. ^{[9, 10]} ; Leynaud, Gerardo C. ^{[1, 2]} ; Chaparro, Juan C. ^{[6, 7]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Nacl Cordoba, Fac Ciencias Exactas Fis & Nat, Ctr Zool Aplicada, Rondeau 798, RA-5000 Cordoba - Argentina

^[2] Consejo Nacl Invest Cient & Tecn, IDEA, Rondeau 798, RA-5000 Cordoba - Argentina

^[3] Inst Butantan, Lab Colecoes Zool, Ave Vital Brasil 1500, Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Nacl San Agustin, Museo Hist Nat, Area Herpetol, Arequipa 04000 - Peru

^[5] Zool Forsch Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn - Germany

^[6] Museo Biodiversidad Peru, Urbanizac Mariscal Gamarra A-61, Zona 2, Cuzco - Peru

^[7] Univ Nacl San Antonio Abad Cusco, Museo Hist Nat, Paraninfo Univ Plaza Armas S-N, Cuzco - Peru

^[8] Frankfurt Zool Soc Peru, Los Cipreses H-21, Santiago, Cusco - Peru

^[9] UEL, CONICET, Miguel Lillo 251, San Miguel De Tucuman, Tucuman - Argentina

^[10] Fdn Miguel Lillo, Miguel Lillo 251, San Miguel De Tucuman, Tucuman - Argentina

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Zootaxa; v. 4565, n. 3, p. 301-344, MAR 11 2019.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

We describe a new species of pitviper of the genus Bothrops from the Peruvian Pampas del Heath, in the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. Pampas del Heath is an area of seasonally flooded savannas and a northwestern extension of the Gran Chaco Boliviano-Paraguayo. The new species is easily distinguished from its congeners by the exclusive combination of dorsal color pattern of body consisting of small C-shaped blotches, postocular stripe originating posteriorly to the eye, covering posterior supralabials, dorsum of the head with paired markings arranged symmetrically, venter cream heavily speckled with brown, prelacunal scale discrete in contact with second supralabial, three to five prefoveals, subfoveal single usually present, postfoveals absent to two, canthals two, seven intersupraoculars, one or two suboculars, two or three postoculars, seven or eight supralabials, nine to eleven infralabials, 26-27 interrictals, 23-25 middorsal scales, 172 ventrals in the female and 169-173 in males, 45 subcaudals in the female and 50 in males. We performed separate and combined phylogenetic analyses based on morphology and five mitochondrial genes and recovered the new species as a member of the Bothrops neuwiedi species group. All lineages of this clade inhabit the South American dry diagonal. This novel species of pitviper increases the known diversity of the genus Bothrops and adds to the number of described taxa from the unique and scarcely known ecosystem of Pampas del Heath. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/50127-5 - Dimensions US-BIOTA São Paulo: scales of biodiversity: integrated studies of snake venom evolution and function across multiple levels of diversity
• Grantee: Inácio de Loiola Meirelles Junqueira de Azevedo
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants