Cercophis auratus is a rare snake with known disjunct distribution between coastal Atlantic Forest to eastern Amazonia and Guiana Shield. Here we provide a new record of this species from a relictual highland of rainforest inside the xeric Caatinga ecoregion. This new record fill a gap of 1700 kilometers between southern (Barra do Choça – BA) and northern (Augusto Corrêa – PA) in the distribution of C. auratus (Schlegel, 1837), and bring insights about the past connective bridge between Amazonia and Atlantic forests.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Bezerra, Castiele Holanda

Guilhon, Bruno F.

Nojosa, Diva Maria B.

Ramos, Antônio Rafael L.

Cuadernos de Herpetología

Servicio de Difusión de la Creación Intelectual

Nota261Author for correspondence: castieleholanda@gmail.comFirst record of the rare snake Cercophis auratus (Schlegel, 1837) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Dipsadinae) in a relictual forest enclave at CaatingaCastiele Holanda Bezerra1,2, Bruno Ferreira Guilhon1,3, Antônio Rafael Lima Ramos1,3, Diva Maria Borges-Nojosa1,2,31 Núcleo Regional de Ofiologia, Departamento de Biologia, bloco 905. Av. Humberto Monte, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Pici, 60440-900, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil. 2 Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Naturais, Departamento de Biologia, bloco 902. Av. Humberto Monte, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Pici, 60440-900Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil.3 Programa de Sistemática, Uso e Conservação da Biodiversidade, Departamento de Biologia, bloco 902. Av. Humberto Monte, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Pici, 60440-900, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil.Cuad. herpetol. 34 (2): 261-264 (2020)The monotypic snake Cercophis auratus (Schlegel, 1837) was described from Paramaribo, Suriname on the basis of a single specimen. Fifty years later, Peracca (1897) described Uromacerina ricardinii (= C. auratus, see below) based on individual from São Paulo State, Brazil. Since then, several studies expand specie’s range to the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Es-pírito Santo, and Bahia along the Atlantic coast of Brazil (Hoge, 1957; Lema, 1973; Müller and Ritter, 1978; Zamprogno, 1997; Argôlo, 2001). In addition, Cunha and Nascimento (1982) reported on two specimens of C. auratus to Cacoal Farm, munici-pality Augusto Corrêa, Pará State, eastern Amazon Forest, highlighting a disjunct distribution of the species among Amazonia and Atlantic rainforest. Recently, Hoogmoed et al. (2019) synonymized U. ricardinii with Cercophis auratus (Schlegel, 1837), updating its morphological variation and geogra-phic distribution. Cercophis auratus is an arboreal and diurnal species, anurophagic and with seasonal reproduction (Morato and Bernils, 1989; Marques, 2000). The lack of knowledge about this snake in museum collections results in the almost totality of knowledge being restricted to external morphology and distribution data. In the course of revision of the herpetological collection of Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil, we identified two specimens of Cercophis auratus previously considered with uncertain identifications (CHUFC 2169, 2609; Fig. 1). The color pattern and general external morphology data from the specimens falls within the spectrum of variation as reported by Hoogmoed et al. (2019) to C. auratus, see Table 1. Both specimens are from municipality of Pacoti (04°13’30”S; 38°55’24”W; 736 m above sea level; asl hereafter), state of Ceará, Brazil (Fig. 2). The Pacoti Municipality makes part of the Maciço de Baturité, a relictual moist forest enclave rounded by xeric Caatinga (Figueiredo and Barbosa, 1990). These new records of C. auratus extends the species range in 1200 km airline to the north from the mu-nicipality Barra do Choça (14°57’32”S; 40°32’56”W; 850 m a.s.l) in the Bahia State (Argolo, 2001), and 936 km airline to the southeast from Cacoal Farm, municipality Augusto Corrêa (01°01’18”S; 46°38’06”W; 20 m a.s.l) in the Pará State, (Cunha and Nascimento, 1982). There are moist forest enclaves known to oc-curs in Pernambuco, Paraíba and Ceará States along their highlands regions at northeastern portion of Brazil, and being each of them composed by mixed Recibida:  1 5  M a y o  2 0 2 0Revisada:  2 9  M a y o  2 0 2 0Aceptada:  0 3  J u n i o  2 0 2 0E d i t o r  A s o c i a d o :  P.  P a s s o sdoi:  10.31017/CdH.2020.(2020-031)ABSTRACTCercophis auratus is a rare snake with known disjunct distribution between coastal Atlantic Forest to eastern Amazonia and Guiana Shield. Here we provide a new record of this species from a relictual highland of rainforest inside the xeric Caatinga ecoregion. This new record fill a gap of 1700 kilometers between southern (Barra do Choça – BA) and northern (Augusto Corrêa – PA) in the distribution of C. auratus (Schlegel, 1837), and bring insights about the past connective bridge between Amazonia and Atlantic forests.Key Words: Relictual rainforest; Northeastern Brazil; Gaps; Distribution.262C.H. Bezerra et al.  - New record of Cercophis auratus to CaatingaFigure 1. General view of Cercophis auratus based on the specimens from municipality of Pacoti, state of Ceará, Brazil. Dorsal view of body (A) of the individual female (CHUFC 2609), and lateral view of body (B) and dorsal (C) and lateral views (D) of head of the individual female (CHUFC 2169).biota from Caatinga, Amazonia and Atlantic forest (Figueiredo and Barbosa, 1990; Borges-Nojosa and Caramaschi, 2003; Rodal et al., 2008; Batalha-Filho et al., 2013). Such forest relics represent putative past connections between Amazonia and Atlantic forest (Haffer, 1969; Vanzolini and Williams, 1970). The-se rainforest ecoregions are currently separated by known South American Dry Diagonal composed by Caatinga, Cerrado and Chaco (Ab’Saber, 1977), and has been considered as a natural barrier to migration of rainforest species. Many evidences support the past contact between Atlantic and Amazonia rain-forest (Rodal et al., 2008; Batalha-Filho et al., 2013), suggesting wetter periods in Pleistocen that granted the expansion of moist forest in area actually covered by open vegetation (Auler et al., 2004). There are many taxa with disjunct distribution along Amazonia and relictual forests on the Caatin-Voucher numberRange variationCHUFC 2169 CHUFC 2609Sex F F F or MDorsals 15/15/11 15/15/11 15/15/11 or 15/13/11Ventrals 143 141 135 - 150Subcaudals 155 153 144 - 171Preocular 1 1 1Postocular 2 2 2 or 3Table 1. Sex, meristic and morphometric data of the two specimens of Cercophis auratus from municipality Pacoti, Ceará State, Brazil, and the range variation in the character found in this species according Hoogmoed et al., 2019. The exemplar CHUFC 2609 has a crushed head. SVL: Snout-vent-length.263Cuad. herpetol. 34 (2): 261-264 (2020)ga (e.g. Caecilia tentaculata, Borges-Nojosa et al., 2017), between relictual forests and Atlantic forest (e.g. Stenolepis ridleyi, Enyalius bibronii, Strobilurus torquatus, Euryoryzomys russatus, Borges and Cara-maschi, 2003; Gurguel-Filho et al., 2015) or in the three rainforest types (e.g. Anolis fuscoauratus, Ken-tropix calcarata, Lachesis muta, Drymoluber dichrous; Nogueira et al., 2019; Borges and Caramaschi, 2003). Therefore, the new records for Cercophis auratus, a species previously known along Atlantic forest with two disparate records on Amazonia, augment the disjunct pattern between both rainforest biomes, reinforcing putative past connections between Amazonia and Atlantic forest (Rodal et al., 2008; Batalha-Filho et al., 2013).AcknowledgmentsWe thank Antonio Jorge Suzart Argôlo for help in the specimens identification.Literature citedAb’Saber, A.N. 1977. Os domínios morfoclimáticos da América do Sul. Primeira aproximação. Geomorfologia 53: 1-23.Argôlo, A.J.S. 2001. Uromacerina ricardinii (Liana Snake). Herpetological Review 32: 196-197.Auler, A.S.; Wang, A.; Edwards, R.L.; Cheng, H.; Cristalli, P.S.; Smart, M.L. & Richards, D.A. 2004. Quaternary ecological and geomorphic changes associated with rainfall events in presently semi-arid northeastern Brazil. Journal of Quaternary Sciences 19: 693-701.Batalha-Filho, H.; Fjeldsa, J.; Fabre, P.H. & Miyaki, C.Y. 2013. Connections between the Atlantic and Amazonian forest avifaunas represent distinct historical events. Journal of Ornithology 154: 41-50.Borges-Nojosa, D.M. & Caramaschi, U. 2003. Composição e análise comparativa da diversidade e das afinidades biogeográficas dos lagartos e anfisbenídeos (Squamata) dos brejos nordestinos: 489-540. In: Leal, I.R.; Tabarelli, M. & Silva, J.M.C (eds), Ecologia e Conservação da Caatinga. Editora UFPE, Recife.Borges-Nojosa, D.M.; Castro, D.P.; Lima, D.C.; Bezerra, C.H.; Maciel, A.O. & Harris, D.J. 2017. Expanding the known range of Caecilia tentaculata (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) to relict mountain forests in northeastern Brazil: linking Atlantic forests to the Amazon? Salamandra 53: 429-434.Cunha, O.R. & Nascimento, F.P. 1982. Ofídios da Amazônia: XVI – A espécie Uromacerina ricardinii (Peracca, 1897) na Supralabials 8 NA 7 - 9Infralabials 10 NA 8 - 11Loreal 1 (divided) NA 1 (divided)Temporals 1 + 2 + 3 NA 1 + 2 + 2 or 3Anal Divided Divided DividedMaxillary teeth 18 + 2 NA 18 + 2 – 23 + 2SVL (mm) 455 307 max. 508Tail length (mm) 380 253 max. 412Total length (mm) 835 560 max. 905Tail/Total length (%) 45 45 42 - 54Tail/SVL (%) 83 82 65 - 97Color Grey-brown Grey Bronze, brown, grey or grey-brownFigure 2. Distribution of Cercophis auratus. Star represent the type-locality and the new records of the species are marked by a triangle. The dots represent previously known records to C. aura-tus based on Hoogmoed et al. (2019) and Nogueira et al. (2019).264C.H. Bezerra et al.  - New record of Cercophis auratus to CaatingaAmazônia Oriental (leste do Pará) (Ophidia: Colubridae). Boletim do Museo Paraense Emílio Goeldi 113: 1-9.Figueiredo, M.A. & Barbosa, M.A. 1990. A vegetação e flora na serra de Baturité. Coleção Mossoroense 747(B).Gurgel-Filho, N.M.; Feijó, A. & Langguth, A. 2015. Pequenos mamíferos do Ceará (marsupiais, morcegos e roedores sigmodontíneos) com discussão taxonômica de algumas espécies. Revista Nordestina de Biologia 23: 3-150.Haffer, J. 1969. Speciation in Amazonian Forest Birds. Science 165: 131-137.Hoge, A.R. 1959. Étude sur Uromacerina ricardinii (Peracca) (Serpentes). Memorias do Instituto Butantan 27: 77-82.Hoogmoed, M.S.; Fernandes, R.; Kucharzewski, C.; Moura-Leite, J.C.; Bérnils, R.S.; Entiauspe-Neto, O.M. & Santos, F.P.R. 2019. Synonymization of Uromacer Ricardinii Peracca, 1897 with Dendrophis aurata Schlegel, 1837 (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae: Dipsadinae), a rare South American snake with a disjunct distribution. South American Journal of Herpetology 14: 88-102.Lema, T. 1973. Ocorrência de Uromacerina ricardinii (Peracca, 1897) no Rio Grande do Sul e contribuição ao conhecimento desta rara espécie (Ophidia, Colubridae). Iheringia Série Zoologia 44: 64-73.Marques, O.A.V. 2000. Natural History Notes: Uromacerina ricardinii (Vine Snake). Predation and Prey. Herpetological Review 31: 180-181.Morato, S.A.A. & Bérnils, R.S. 1989. Dados sobre reprodução de Uromacerina ricardinii (Peracca, 1897) (Serpentes: Colubridae) do Estado do Paraná-Brasil. Acta Biologica Leopoldensia 11: 273-278.Müller, P. & Ritter, C. 1978. Erstnachweis von Uromacerina ricardinii (Peracca, 1897) für den Staat von Santa Catarina (Brasilien) (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae). Salamandra 14: 44.Nogueira, C.C.; Argôlo, A.J.S.; Arzamendia, V.; Azevedo, J.A.B.; Barbo, F.E. et al. 2019. Atlas of Brazilian Snakes: Verified Point-Locality Maps to Mitigate the Wallacean Shortfall in a Megadiverse Snake Fauna. South American Journal of Herpetology 14: 1-274. Peracca, M.G. 1897. Intorno ad una nuova specie di ofidio di S. Paulo (Brasile) riferibile al gen. Uromacer D. & B. Bolletino dei Musei di Zoologia ed Anatomia Comparata della R. Universita di Torino 12: 1-2.Rodal, M.J.N.; Barbosa, M.R.V. & Thomas, W.W. 2008. Do the seasonal forests in northeastern Brazil represent a single floristic unit? Brazilian Journal of Biololgy 68: 467-475.Vanzolini, P.E. & Williams, E.E. 1970. South American anoles: the geographic differentiation and evolution of the Anolis chrysolepis species group (Sauria: Iguanidae). Arquivos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 19: 125-298.Zamprogno, C. 1997. Uromacerina ricardinii (Cobra-cipó, Sao Paulo Sharp Snake). Brazil: Espírito Santo. Herpetological Review 28: 211.© 2020 por los autores, licencia otorgada a la Asociación Herpetológica Argentina. Este artículo es de acceso abierto y distribuido bajo los términos y condiciones de una licencia Atribución-No Comercial 2.5 Argentina de Creative Commons. Para ver una copia de esta licencia, visite http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ar/

First record of the rare snake Cercophis auratus (Schlegel, 1837) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Dipsadinae) in a relictual forest enclave at Caatinga

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First record of the rare snake Cercophis auratus (Schlegel, 1837) (Serpentes: Colubridae: Dipsadinae) in a relictual forest enclave at Caatinga

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