Apostolepis longicaudata GOMES, 1921
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Apostolepis longicaudata?
Apostolepis longicaudata
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Piauí Blackhead, Longhead Burrowing Snake Portuguese: Cobra-da-Terra, Cobrinha-da-Terra |
| Synonym | Apostolepis longicaudata GOMES in AMARAL 1921 Apostolepis longicaudata — HARVEY 1999 Apostolepis longicaudata — DE LEMA 2002 Apostolepis longicaudata — CURCIO et al. 2011 Apostolepis longicaudata — WALLACH et al. 2014: 52 Apostolepis longicaudata — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Piaui, Tocantins, Espírito Santo) Type locality: Municipio de Santa Philomena, Estado de Piauhy, Brazil. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: IBSP 1684 (not labeled in field, destroyed by fire in 2010), an adult male from Engenheiro Dodt, municipality o Santa Filomena, state of Piauı ́, northeastern Brazil, collected by Francisco de Assis I(n)glesias between 1916 and 1918 (the ‘‘n’’ in the collector’s surname is a typographic error; the correct spelling is ‘‘Iglesias’’). Originally described in 1919, by J. Florencio Gomes, formally published by Amaral (1921a). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A small species of Apostolepis, SVL up to 254 mm, differing from all congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) snout rounded or slightly acuminate, length of rostral visible from above slightly more than one-third its distance to frontal; (2) six supralabials; (3) preocular– nasal contact present (i.e., nasal and preocular not separated by prefrontal); (4) temporals absent (0+0), fifth and sixth supralabials in contact with parietals; (5) four infralabials contacting first pair of chin shields on each side of head; (6) ventrals 234–244 and subcaudals 49–52 in males (females unknown); (7) dorsal head plates uniformly dark brown, except for small irregular white blotches on anteriomedial surface of prefrontals; (8) light supralabial blotch large, covering posterior margin of third and almost whole area of fourth supralabial; (9) white and black nuchal collars completely absent; (10) five dorsal stripes similar in width (as wide as, or slightly wider than, one dorsal scale row); (11) dorsum background light tan (orange-tan in life); (12) terminal scale directed backward, mostly white, possibly invaded by black pigment from the tail band at least on its dorsal surface; (13) chin and gular region immaculate cream. Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 5419 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Conservation: very rare species, known from only a few specimens. |
| Etymology | Presumably named after the Latin longus (long) plus cauda (tail), referring to the long tail of the species. |
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