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Revista latinoamericana de herpetología

On-line version ISSN 2594-2158

Rev. latinoam. herpetol. vol.5 n.4 Ciudad de México Oct./Dec. 2022  Epub June 26, 2023

https://doi.org/10.22201/fc.25942158e.2022.4.512 

Scientific notes

First Record of the Zongolica Earth Snake Geophis lorancai (Squamata: Dipsadidae) in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico

Primer registro de la serpiente minera de Zongolica Geophis lorancai (Squamata: Dipsadidae) en el Estado de Oaxaca, México

Juan Daniel Peña-Martínez1 

Elia Yesenia Arrazola-García1 

Elí García-Padilla2 

Mario C. Lavariega3 

Iván Villalobos-Juárez4 

Vicente Mata-Silva5 

Lydia Allison Fucsko6 

Larry David Wilson7 

1Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, 68000, México.

2Biodiversidad Mesoamericana. Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. 68023, México.

3Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Hornos 1003, 71230 Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Oaxaca, México.

4Colección Zoológica, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. Av. Universidad 940, Ciudad Universitaria. 20131. Aguascalientes, Ags, México.

5Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968-0500, USA.

6Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

7 Centro Zamorano de Biodiversidad, Escuela Agrícola Panamericana Zamorano, Departamento de Francisco Morazán, Honduras; 1350 Pelican Court, Homestead, Florida 33035-1031.


Abstract

We report the first record of the snake Geophis lorancai for the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The species was previously known only from the type localities in the Sierra de Zongolica in Veracruz and the Sierra de Quimixtlán in Puebla, as well as from some additional recently-discovered localities in central Veracruz. The discovery of G. lorancai in Oaxaca brings the state herpetofaunal list up to 481 species as of 2022.

Key words: Zongolica miner snake; first state record; Oaxaca; Mexico

Resumen

Reportamos el primer registro de la serpiente Geophis lorancai para el estado mexicano de Oaxaca. La especie se conocía previamente solamente de las localidades tipo en la Sierra de Zongolica en Veracruz y la Sierra de Quimixtlán en Puebla, así como de algunas localidades adicionales descubiertas más recientemente en el centro de Veracruz. El hallazgo de G. lorancai en el estado de Oaxaca eleva la lista de la herpetofauna estatal a 481 especies al año 2022.

Palabras claves: Serpiente minera de Zongolica; primer registro estatal; Oaxaca; México

The Zongolica Miner Snake Geophis lorancai (Canseco-Márquez et al., 2016), is a species endemic to Mexico, characterized by being medium-sized (largo hocico-cloaca, LHC: 268 mm), with a robust body, a head easily distinguished from the elongate body, with an oval snout, and small eyes; the coloration of the head up to the 12th mid-dorsal scale is black, the rest of the body up to the tail has black bands on an orange or reddish background color. It is a species of fossorial habits and can be found in microhabitats such as leaf litter and under rotten trunks. This snake is known to inhabit montane cloud forest and pine-oak forest association ecotone sites, as well as secondary vegetation (Canseco-Márquez et al., 2016; Domínguez- Mendoza et al., 2021).

Geophis lorancai has been registered previously in the state of Puebla in the municipality of Chichiquila and in Veracruz in the municipalities of Los Reyes, Zongolica (Canseco-Márquez et al., 2016), Mixtla de Altamirano, San Juan Texhuacán, and Tequila (De La Torre-Loranca et al., 2020), and Coscomatepec (Domínguez-Mendoza et al., 2021); the known elevational range is between 1,210 and 1,887 m a.s.l. (Canseco-Márquez et al., 2021.; De La Torre-Loranca et al., 2020).

Photo: Elia Yesenia Arrazola-García.

Figure 1 An individual of Geophis lorancai from the vicinity of Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, found dead by local villagers (CH-CIB 126).  

Foto: Elia Yesenia Arrazola-García.

Figura 1 Individuo de Geophis lorancai en las inmediaciones de Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, encontrado muerto por pobladores locales (CH-CIB 126).  

Photo: Elia Yesenia Arrazola-García.

Figure 2 Close up of the head of Geophis lorancai from the vicinity of Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca. Note the presence of the supraocular scale which is a diagnostic character of this species.  

Foto: Elia Yesenia Arrazola-García.

Figura 2 Acercamiento a la cabeza de Geophis lorancai de las inmediaciones de Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca. Nótese la presencia de la escama supraocular que es un carácter diagnóstico de esta especie.  

Figure 3  Map representing the old and new records of Geophis lorancai. The blue and white circles represent the previous records in Veracruz and Puebla and the circles inside the red square the new records within Oaxaca. 

Figura 3 Mapa que representa los registros anteriores y nuevos de Geophis lorancai. Los círculos azules y blancos representan a los registros previos en Veracruz y Puebla y los círculos dentro del cuadro rojo a los nuevos registros dentro de Oaxaca. 

Herein, we report the first record of Geophis lorancai in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Four individuals were observed and photo-documented by JDPM and EYAG between 2020 and 2021 in the vicinity of Huautla de Jiménez within the cloud forest of the mountain range known as Sierra Mazateca inside the physiographic region known as Sierra Madre de Oaxaca (Mata-Silva et al., 2015). The 4 specimens with the accompanying photo vouchers were deposited in the digital collection of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas of the Universidad Autónoma de Hidalgo (CH-CIB 123-126). With the addition of G. lorancai to the Oaxaca state list the total of species comprising the herpetofauna of the state is currently 481 (see Mata-Silva et al., 2021).

Record # 1: September 18th of 2020, colonia Llano Ocote, Huautla de Jiménez in the municipality of the same name (18.128604° N 96.823025° W; WGS84; 1,895 m a.s.l.). A dead individual was found on the road and badly smashed (CH-CIB 123).

Record # 2: 30th of April 2021, colonia Cerro Clarín, Huautla de Jiménez in the municipality of the same name (18.126258°, N 96.821588° W; WGS84; 1,926 m a.s.l.). A dead individual was found on the road (CH-CIB 124).

Record # 3: 16th May 2021, colonia Llano Ocote, Huautla de Jiménez in the municipality of the same name (18.127835°, N 96.823186° W; WGS84; 1,877 m a.s.l.). A dead individual was found on the road (CH-CIB125).

Record # 4: 30th de September 2021, colonia Llano Ocote, Huautla de Jiménez in the municipality of the same name (18.128761°, N 96.822833° W; WGS84; 1,901 m a.s.l.). An individual recently killed by local villagers who confused the specimen with a coral snake (CH-CIB 126).

All the specimens were identified following the diagnosis available in the original description by Canseco-Márquez et al. (2016) where not just the color patterns coincide but also the scutellation with the presence of the supraocular scale a diagnostic character that distinguished this species from other close congeners such as G. duellmani. These records increase the known range of distribution of G. lorancai along the southern portion of the Sierra Madre Oriental ca. 57 kilometers from the nearest records in the vicinity of Zongolica, Veracruz. The municipality of Zongolica Veracruz is close to the border with the state of Oaxaca, so the discovery of G. lorancai inside the state of Oaxaca was not unexpected following the corridor of the cloud forest where this species inhabits. Most of the individuals were found dead by local people which draws the attention in terms of the lack of protection and conservations programs inside this anthropogenic context.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the local authorities and villagers in the vicinity of Huautla de Jiménez in Oaxaca for allowing us to find this species. We also thank Irene Goyenechea-Mayén for the assistance in obtaining the photo vouchers. Finally, we would like to thank Tamara María Blázquez Haik for the revision of the written english.

Cited literature

Canseco-Márquez, L., C.J. Pavón-Vázquez, M.A. López-Luna & A. Nieto-Montes de Oca. 2016. A new species of earth snake (Dipsadidae, Geophis) from Mexico. ZooKeys 610:131-145. [ Links ]

De La Torre-Loranca, M.A., R.G. Martínez-Fuentes, L. Canseco-Márquez & U.O. García-Vázquez. 2020. New Records of Amphibians and Reptiles from Sierra de Zongolica, Veracruz and Puebla, Mexico. Herpetological Review 51:550-553. [ Links ]

Domínguez-Mendoza, J., J.L. Castillo Juárez, V. Vasquez-Cruz & L. Canseco-Márquez. 2021. Geophis lorancai (Squamata: Dipsadidae) en el centro de Veracruz. Revista Latinoamericana De Herpetología 4:205-208. [ Links ]

Mata-Silva, V., J.D. Johnson, L.D. Wilson & E. García-Padilla. 2015. The herpetofauna of Oaxaca, Mexico: composition, physiographic distribution, and conservation status. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2:6-62. [ Links ]

Mata-Silva V., E. García-Padilla, A. Rocha, D.L. De Santis, J.D. Johnson, A. Ramírez-Bautista & L.D. Wilson. 2021. A reexamination of the herpetofauna of Oaxaca, Mexico: composition update, physiographic distribution, and conservation commentary. Zootaxa 4996:201-252. [ Links ]

Received: July 20, 2022; Accepted: September 23, 2022; Published: October 18, 2022

*Correspondence: eligarciapadilla25@gmail.com

Editor: Adriana Manzano, Argentina.

Creative Commons License This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License