A new species of pitviper of the genus Bothrops (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalinae) from the Central Andes of South America

Abstract

We describe a new species of montane pitviper of the genus Bothrops from the Cordillera Oriental of the Central Andes, distributed from southern Peru to central Bolivia. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the characteristic combination of a dorsal body color pattern consisting of triangular or subtriangular dark brown dorsal blotches, paired dark brown parallel occipital stripes, a conspicuous dark brown postocular stripe, the presence of canthorostrals in some specimens, prelacunal fused or partially fused with second supralabial, one scale usually separating internasals, rostral trapezoidal, two canthals oval to rounded, similar size or slightly larger than internasals, three or four medial intercanthals, eight to twelve intersupraoculars, intercanthals and intersupraoculars keeled and frequently slightly keeled, supraoculars oval, one to three suboculars, two to three postoculars, loreal subtriangular, two to six prefoveals, subfoveals absent, two or none postfoveals, one or two scales between suboculars and fourth supralabial, seven or eight supralabials, nine or eleven infralabials, 23–25 middorsal scales, 189–195 ventrals in females and 182–190 in males, 48–58 subcaudals in females and 54–63 in males, exceptionally undivided. The new species is apparently restricted to areas within Andean montane forests that are less humid and devoid of large trees.

Total‐evidence phylogeny and evolutionary morphology of New World pitvipers (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalinae)

“…Using the same DNA sequences, subsequent phylogenetic studies recovered the same relationship (Alencar et al., 2016; Figueroa et al., 2016; Zaher et al., 2019; Hamdan et al., 2020). Concomitantly, phylogenetic analyses that combined that molecular data with morphology (Carrasco et al., 2019; Timms et al., 2019) showed B. lojanus in a basal position with respect to the rest of Bothrops species. In this study, although we examined several specimens of B. lojanus allowing us to improve considerably the amount of morphological data analysed previously, our analyses could not sufficiently resolve the position of the species.…”

“…Other species of Bothrops with unstable or dubious phylogenetic position were B. barnetti , B. monsignifer , B. pictus and B. venezuelensis (Fenwick et al., 2009; Carrasco et al., 2012, 2019; Timms et al., 2019). These species are endemic to particular regions of South America, and some of them have been ranked among the NW pitvipers with the highest evolutionary distinctiveness index ( B. barnetti and B. pictus , Fenker et al., 2014) and category of rarity ( B. venezuelensis , Birskis‐Barros et al., 2019).…”

Danger in the Canopy. Comparative Proteomics and Bioactivities of the Venoms of the South American Palm Pit ViperBothrops bilineatusSubspeciesbilineatusandsmaragdinusand Antivenomics ofB. b. bilineatus(Rondônia) Venom against the Brazilian Pentabothropic Antivenom

“…neuwiedi, and B. taeniatus, − although the monophily of this taxonomic scheme is not unanimously accepted. , With about 50 species of extant pit vipers (), with some of them described recently, − Bothrops (subfamily Crotalinae of Viperidae) represents the most successful South American pit viper radiation. Bothrops species inhabit a wide spectrum of ecoregions throughout tropical Latin America, from the sea level to 3000 m of altitude, from northeastern Mexico to Argentina and some parts of the lower Caribbean islands. ,, The extreme diverse morphological and ecological traits exhibited by the Bothrops species, commonly referred to as lanceheads, should be ascribed to the absence of potential competitors or predators, such as other pit vipers and placental carnivores, when this lineage radiated throughout South America .…”

A New Species of Andean Gymnophthalmid Lizard (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) from the Peruvian Andes, and Resolution of Some Taxonomic Problems

“…The eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes are one of the regions with the greatest diversity of flora and fauna [1]. During the last few years, many species of plants and animals from the Peruvian Andes have been discovered (e.g., [2,3]). In particular, researchers have discovered many species of lizards of the family Gymnophthalmidae in poorly explored regions [4][5][6][7][8][9].…”