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Issue: Vol. 3811 No. 4: 5 Jun. 2014
Type: Article
Published: 2014-06-05
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3811.4.8
Page range: 569–584
Abstract views: 26
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of triadal coral snake of the genus Micrurus Wagler, 1824 (Serpentes: Elapidae) from northeastern Brazil

Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré 481, Ipiranga, São Paulo, 04263–000, São Paulo, Brazil
Departamento de Biologia, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Rua 235, n.40, Bl. L, Setor Universitário, Goiânia, 74605–010, Goiás, Brazil Pós-graduação em Ciências Ambientais e Saúde, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Rua 232 n º 128, 3º andar, Área V, Setor Universitário, Goiânia, 74605–140, Goiás, Brazil
Departamento de Biologia, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Goiás, Rua 235, n.40, Bl. L, Setor Universitário, Goiânia, 74605–010, Goiás, Brazil Laboratório de Herpetologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Avenida Perimetral 1901, CP 399, 66040–170, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Laboratório de Herpetologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Avenida Perimetral 1901, CP 399, 66040–170, Belém, Pará, Brazil
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré 481, Ipiranga, São Paulo, 04263–000, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré 481, Ipiranga, São Paulo, 04263–000, São Paulo, Brazil
Elapidae taxonomy morphology Micrurus new species Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The genus Micrurus comprises 123 currently recognized taxa (species and subspecies) that are traditionally arranged in four species groups diagnosable mainly by color pattern characteristics. Here, we describe a new species of triadal coral snake from northeastern Brazil. The new species is distinguished from other sympatric triadal congeners (M. lemniscatus carvalhoi, M. ibiboboca and M. brasiliensis) mainly by the entirely black parietals and by a suite of external characters and hemipenial morphology. The new species appears to be restricted to tropical ombrophilous lowland coastal forests of northeastern Brazil and all recently collected specimens are known to occur in small forest patches surrounded by periurban environment, which calls for an urgent evaluation on its conservation status.