Atractus emmeli (BOETTGER, 1888)
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Atractus emmeli
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Emmel's Ground Snake E: Boettger's Ground Snake [boettgeri] |
| Synonym | Geophis emmeli BOETTGER 1888: 192 Atractus emmeli — BOULENGER 1894: 311 Atractus boettgeri BOULENGER 1896: 645 Atractus balzani BOULENGER 1898: 129 Atractus taeniatus GRIFFIN 1916: 173 Atractus emmeli — SCHMIDT & WALKER 1943 Atractus balzani — PETERS et al. 1970: 27 Atractus taeniatus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 35 Atractus boettgeri — MCCOY 1971 (part.) Atractus boettgeri — DA CUNHA & DO NASCIMENTO 1983: 122 Atractus paravertebralis HENLE & EHRL 1991 Atractus taeniatus — CEI 1993 Atractus occipitoalbus — FUGLER & CABOT 1995:45 Atractus taeniatus — PASSOS et al. 2005 Atractus emmeli — PASSOS & FERNANDES 2008 Atractus paravertebralis — BÖHME 2010 Atractus occipitoalbus — QUINTERO-MUÑOZ 2013: 76 Atractus balzani — WALLACH et al. 2014: 69 Atractus emmeli — WALLACH et al. 2014: 72 Atractus paravertebralis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 79 Atractus boettgeri — WALLACH et al. 2014: 69 Atractus taeniatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 81 Atractus emmeli — PASSOS et al. 2019: 10 Atractus emmeli — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Bolivia (Beni, Santa Cru), Peru (Cusco, Junin, Loreto, Ucayali) Type locality: Río Mapiri, Dep. de La Paz, Bolivia balzani: NW Bolivia (La Paz); Type locality: Missiones Mosetenes, NW Bolivia [15°47’S, 66°58’W, ca. 517 m elevation] boettgeri: Bolivia (Cochabamba); Type locality: Yungas, Sierra de las Yungas, Dep. de Cochabamba, Bolivia paravertebralis: S Peru; Type locality: “Peru; Departamento Madre de Dios; Baja Tambopata; in Sekundärwald” [= Río Tambopata, Madre de Dios Department, SE Peru, ca. 12°53’S, 69°25’W, elevation 225 m]. taeniatus: Bolivia (Santa Cruz), Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná [HR 27: 216], Mato Grosso), Argentina (Entre Rios, Misiones, Corrientes ?); Type locality: Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Departamento de Santa Cruz, Bolivia. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: SMF 19364 (designated by Mertens 1967) Holotype: MSNG 28873, a 400 mm specimen (L. Balzan, 1892) [balzani] Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.6.29 [boettgeri] Holotype: ZFMK 39705, no paratype [paravertebralis] Holotype: CM 117, a 218 mm male (J. Steinbach) [taeniatus] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (emmeli). Atractus emmeli can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) smooth dorsal scale rows usually 15/15/15, lacking apical pits; (2) postoculars two; (3) loreal moderately long; (4) temporal formula 1þ2; (5) supralabials six to seven, third and fourth contacting orbit; (6) infralabials usually seven, first four scales in contact with chin shields; (7) maxillary teeth six to eight with posterior-most two teeth reduced in size; (8) gular scales in four series; (9) usually four preventrals; (10) ventrals in females 154–187, in males 147–169; (11) subcaudals in females 14–25, in males 20–31; (12) after preservation, dorsum of body light to dark brown or uniformly black, frequently with a broad white to pale brown parietal band most conspicuous in immature specimens, and occasionally (in the cases of lighter ground color) with irregular black blotches on paravertebral region; (13) after preservation, ventral surface of body and tail cream, usually heavily covered with variable black dots or spots, longitudinally along the midline of each ventral, laterally restricted to the anterior margins of each scale, irregularly distributed on venter or almost entirely darkening the belly and tail; (14) body size moderate, females reaching 382 mm, males reaching 304 mm SVL; (15) tail short in females (5.7– 9.6% SVL), moderately long in males (9.2–14.7% SVL); (16) hemipenis moderately bilobed, semicapitated, and semicalyculated [from Passos et al. 2019: 11]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: mostly after Passos et al. 2019. Passos et al. 2018 synonymized A. balzani with A. emmeli. Passos et al. 2019 synonymized A. boettgeri, A. paravertebralis, and A. taeniatus with A. emmeli based on quantitative (meristics and morphometrics) and qualitative (pholidosis, color pattern, and hemipenis) analyses of morphological characters, in combination with ecological niche modeling and niche overlapping. Abundance: Boulenger (1898) described A. balzani based on a single specimen and no other specimens have been collected since then (Passos et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | Named after Ferdinand Emmel sent two specimens of this snake to Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt. A. boettgeri was named after Oskar Boettger (1844-1910), herpetologist at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main. A. balzani was named after Dr. Luigi Balzan (1865-1893), an Italian naturalist and collector of the holotype. |
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