Apostolepis sanctaeritae WERNER, 1924
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Apostolepis sanctaeritae
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Apostolepis sanctae-ritae WERNER 1924: 43 Apostolepis sanctaeritae — DE LEMA & FERNANDES 1997 Apostolepis sanctaeritae — DE LEMA 2002 Apostolepis ammodites FERRAREZZI, ERRITTO BARBO & ESPAÑA ALBUQUERQUE 2005 Apostolepis sanctaeritae — GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012 Apostolepis ammodites — WALLACH et al. 2014: 50 Apostolepis ammodites — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | sanctaeritae: C Brazil (Goias) Type locality: Santa Rita, Brazil (probably Santa Rita do Araguaia, Goiás); restricted to Santa Rita, Ibipetuba, Bahia, Brasil at 11°S, 44,32°W, in the Cerrado ecoregion (Lema and Fernandes, 1997). ammodites: Brazil (Central Cerrado: Bahia, Distrito Federal, Goias, Minas Gerais); Type locality: Brazil, Tocantins, Palmas, (10°02’ S, 47°20’ W, 230 m elevation). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: NMW 23452 Holotype: IBSP (= IB) 65267 [ammodites] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (ammodites): Rostral nearly roundish but somewhat prominent, its portion visible from above about 1/3 to 1/2 of the interprefrontal suture length; ventrals 221-235 in males to 234-252 in females; subcaudals 32-36 in males and 26-31 in females; light snout blotch reddish in life (fading to yellowish in preservative) and a small to indistinct light supralabial spot; white nuchal collars about 3-6 scales long, black cervical collar 4-7 scales long, followed by an additional postcervical white collar 1-3 scales long; dorsum uniformly red (without stripes); ventral surface uniformly light (unpigmented), except under the head and neck; premaxillae bounded to maxillae; dorsal laminae of nasal contacting frontal and prefrontal; maxillary teeth 4+2, dentary teeth 9-10; pterygoid teeth 3-4. Diagnosis (n = 11): Apostolepis sanctaeritae can be distinguished from all its congeners by the following com- bination of characters: (1) 15/15/15 smooth dorsals without apical pits; (2) 1+1 postoculars; (3) loreal absent; (4) tempo- rals 0+1, 1+1; (5) supralabials 6, with 2nd and 3rd in contact with orbit; (6) infralabials 7, with first four in contact with chin shield; (7) ventrals 219–253 (219–240 in males, 221– 253 in females); (8) subcaudals 25–36 pairs (32–36 in males, 26–32 in females); (9) in life, dorsal pattern uniform orange or red, head dorsally black, with a white blotch ranging from rostral to frontal scales, supralabial blotch small on 4th supralabial scale, white nuchal collar wide (2–6 scales long), black nuchal collar wide (4–7 scales long), followed by a small or absent white nuchal collar (1–3 scales long, if present), black dorsal tail blotch present (in preservative, white, orange, and red colorations can become indistinct); (10) in life, ventral pattern similar to dorsal, uniform or- ange, with infralabial and gular black markings, sometimes with indistinct black markings below the white and black nuchal collar, terminal caudal spine black (Fig 2) (Entiauspe-Neto et al. 2020). |
| Comment | Belongs to the assimilis species group of Apostololepis. Synonymy: Entiauspe-Neto et al. 2020 revalidated Apostolepis sanctaeritae from the synonymy of A. cearensis. They also synonymized ammodites with sanctaeritae. Distribution: see map in Entiauspe-Neto et al. 2020: 334 (Fig. 2). See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. |
| Etymology | Named after the Greek word for sand (“ammos”). |
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