First records of Chthonerpeton arii Cascon and Lima-Verde, 1994 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) out of the type locality

Abstract

is a family of Gymnophiona, which includes the aquatic and semiaquatic caecilians of South America (Taylor 1968). There are five recognized genera up till now, for which Chthonerpeton Peters, 1880 is the most speciose, with eight known species (Wilkinson and Nussbaum 2006). Chthonerpeton arii Cascon and Lima-Verde, 1994 was described based on 60 specimens collected in the municipality of Limoeiro do Norte, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. Here, we report the first records of this species out of the type locality, in the state of Bahia and in its border with the state of Pernambuco, in the São Francisco river (Figure 1). We found three specimens of C. arii in two Brazilian herpetological collections. One male specimen in the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Fortaleza, state of Ceará (UFC A2465; 282 mm total length; collected by J. S. Lima-Verde; September 1988) from the hydroelectric of Itaparica (current hydroelectric of Luiz Gonzaga), on the border between the states of Pernambuco and Bahia; and two female specimens in the Herpetological collection of the Museu de História Natural of Universidade Federal de Alagoas (MUFAL), Maceió, state of Alagoas (MUFAL 8363-64; respectively, 385 mm and 457 mm total length, Figure 2; collected by CHESF officials; July 1982) from a fish breeding station in the municipality of Paulo Afonso, state of Bahia. These two new localities are approximately 30 km apart from each other, and 440 km and 470 km, respectively, from the type locality. The species identification was made by comparison to the type series. Specimens from Paulo Afonso are more robust than the other known specimens of C. arii but we do not have an explanation about, since we have few specimens from it locality to test geographic variation. Chthonerpeton arii is the species in the genus with the most septentrional Abstract: Chthonerpeton arii was described from a large series of specimens from Limoeiro do Norte municipality, state of Ceará, Brazil. Here we provide the first records of the species out of the type locality, in the state of Bahia, and in its border with the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. We also provide color photographs of a preserved specimen.