Atractus uroborus PASSOS, MENESES-PELAYO, RAMOS, MARTINS, MACHADO, LOPES, BARRIO-AMORÓS & LYNCH, 2024
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Atractus uroborus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Atractus uroborus PASSOS, MENESES-PELAYO, RAMOS, MARTINS, MACHADO, LOPES, BARRIO-AMORÓS & LYNCH 2024: 108 |
| Distribution | Colombia (Santander) Type locality: Parque Natural Nacional Serranía de Los Yariguíes (06°33′N, 73°26′W), municipality of El Carmen de Chucurí (ca. 1,160 m asl), department of Santander, Colombia (Fig. 97A). |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. ICN‐R 12177, Adult male, collected on 14 March 2011 by Martha L. Calderón Espinosa. Paratypes. Three females and one male, respective‐ ly all of them from department of Santander, Colom‐ bia: ICN‐R 12176 (Fig. 97B) and ICN‐R 12178, with same data as the holotype; UIS-R 4422 (field number EMP 1931) collected on 11 January 2019 by Daniel Mauricio Díaz Rueda at La Montaña Magica-El Poleo Reservation (06°50′5.262′′N, 73°18′10.087′′W; 2,000 m asl), UIS-R 3848 (field number EMP 1242) collected on 9 September 2017 by E. Meneses-Pelayo at Finca Napoles (06°52′34.662′′N, 73°19′51.625′′W; 2,030 m asl), Vereda Paloblanco, both localities in the municipality of Zapatoca (Figs. 97−100). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Atractus uroborus can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) dorsal scale rows smooth, 17/17/17; (2) postoculars two; (3) loreal long; (4) temporal formula 1 + 2; (5) supralabials seven, 3 and 4 contacting eye; (6) infralabials seven, 1−3 contacting chinshields; (7) maxillary teeth 12−13; (8) gular scale rows three; (9) preventrals usually three; (10) ventrals 155−159 in females, 145−150 in males; (11) subcaudals 16−21 in females, 21 in males; (12) in preservative, dorsum light brown to brown usually with conspicuous white parietal band and dark brown to black dorsolateral lines covering paravertebral and paraventral regions; (13) in preservative, belly almost entirely brown, except for the gulag region and lateralmost portion of ventral scales white; (14) small body size, females reaching 225 mm SVL, males 212 mm SVL; (15) tail shortin females (7.7−8.9% SVL), moderatein males (10.4−12.1% SVL); (16) hemipenis slightly bilobed, semicapitate, semicalyculate; (17) laterosphenoid unknown. (Passos et al. 2024) 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 2967 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | The specific epithet uroborus corresponds to an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating its own tail. This myth arises in ancient Egyptian legends and entered Occidental Culture via Greek philosophers, being adopt‐ ed as symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most notably in Alchemy. The word derives from the Ancient Greek ‘οὐροβόρος’, from οὐρά (oura, “tail”) + βορά (bora, “food”). The Uroborus is often interpreted as a symbol for eternal renewal or the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. We employ this word herein in allusion to the reconstruc‐ tion of the Museu Nacional (the Brazilian National Museum), after the tragic fire of 2 September 2018, which destroyed approximately 20 million irreplaceable items from archeological, artistic, ethnological, linguistic, pale‐ ontological, botanical, and zoological collections (Zamudio et al., 2018). After this devastating cultural and scientific tragedy, the institution has been working hard to rebuild the research structure that was lost. This tribute to Museu Nacional is also an alert for Brazilian governments that, unfortunately, prefer to invest more in pharaonic football stadiums than art, culture, and science. Accidental fires in the Museu da Arte Moderna, Instituto Butantan, and Museu da Lingua Portuguesa are clear evidence of neglect in the past governments in relation to Brazilian Cultural Heritage. The maintenance of such scientific and cultural institutions in Brazil has become increasingly complex, not only due to the lack of material and human resources but, mainly, due to repeated attacks of the past government authorities on science, culture, and environmental protec‐ tion and corresponding reductions in funding (Bockmann et al., 2018; Magnusson et al., 2018). This species is also dedicated to all areas of knowledge, ethnic groups, and less favored portions of society that bravely resist all these anti‐democratic attitudes anywhere. (Passos et al. 2024) |
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