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Issue: Vol. 381 No. 1: 12 Dec. 2003
Type: Article
Published: 2003-12-12
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.381.1.1
Page range: 1–11
Abstract views: 44
PDF downloaded: 4

A new species of Chthonerpeton (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) from Bahia, Brazil

Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Caixa Postal 74524, Seropédica, RJ, 23851-970, Brazil
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Geociências, Departamento de Geografia, Campus Praia Vermelha - Avenida Litorânea, Boa Viagem, Niterói, RJ, 24210-340 Brazil
3Museu Nacional, UFRJ, Departamento de Vertebrados, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, RJ, 20940-040, Brazil
Amphibia Chthonerpeton noctinectes sp. nov. natural history

Abstract

A new species of the Chthonerpeton indistinctum group is described from Brazil based on fourteen specimens collected in the Municipality of Conde, State of Bahia. The new species is characterized by 94–103 primary annuli, 100–108 vertebrae, tentacular aperture closer to nares than to eyes, umpigmented cloacal disk and narial plug areas, and by the number of vomeropalatine and dentary teeth that is smaller than that of the other species in the group. The new species is aquatic and fossorial, and can be found swimming actively at night or borrowed in mud in places near the river.

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