Epictia ater (TAYLOR, 1940)
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Epictia ater
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| Higher Taxa | Leptotyphlopidae, Epictinae, Epictini, Typhlopoidea, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Black Blind Snake |
| Synonym | Stenostoma albifrons — COPE 1887: 63 (part) Glauconia albifrons — BOULENGER 1893: 63 (part) Leptotyphlops albifrons — AMARAL 1930: 138 (part) Leptotyphlops (= Glauconia) albifrons — WETTSTEIN 1934: 31 (part) Leptotyphlops ater TAYLOR 1940 Leptotyphlops nasalis TAYLOR 1940: 535 Leptotyphlops ater — TAYLOR 1955 Leptotyphlops albifrons ater — COCHRAN 1961: 194 Leptotyphlops albifrons nasalis — COCHRAN 1961: 194 Leptotyphlops phenops — CAMPBELL & HOWELL 1965: 133 Leptotyphlops bakewelli — LIST 1966: 6 Leptotyphlops goudotii ater — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 Leptotyphlops goudotii phenops — PETERS et al. 1970 (part) Leptotyphlops goudotii phenops — PETERS et al. 1986: 170 (part) Leptotyphlops goudotti (sic) — SAVAGE 1973: 13 Leptotyphlops goudoti ater — SMITH & SMITH 1976 Leptotyphlops goudoti — HAHN 1979: 2–3 (part) Leptotyphlops goudotii — SAVAGE 1980: 16 Leptotyphlops goudotti (sic) ater — HAHN 1980: 15 Leptotyphlops goudotti (sic) phenops — VILLA 1983: 37 Leptothyphlops (sic) goudotii — GREENE 1999: 149 Leptotyphlops nasalis — VILLA 1990 Leptotyphlops nasalis — MCDIARMID et al. 1999: 38 Leptotyphlops ater — SAVAGE 2002: 558 Leptotyphlops goudutii (sic) — ALEMÁN-MEJÍA 2008: 101 (part). Epictia ater — MCCRANIE 2009: 16 Leptotyphlops ater — SAVAGE & BOLANOS 2009 Epictia nasalis — ADALSTEINSSON et al. 2009 Epictia goudotii — WILSON & JOHNSON 2010: 101 (part) Epictia nasalis — WILSON & JOHNSON 2010: 101 Epictia ater — MCCRANIE 2011 Epictia goudotii ater — ÇINAR 2012: 121 Crishagenus nasalis — HOSER 2012: 33 Epictia ater — WALLACH et al. 2014: 275 Epictia ater — MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2016 Epictia ater — WALLACH 2016: 226 Epictia ater — SUNYER & MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA 2023 |
| Distribution | Guatemala (Izabel); W Honduras (Choluteca, Comayagua, Copán, Cortés, Francisco Morazán, Gracias a Dios, Intibucá, Lempira, Santa Barbara, Valle, Yoro, including Isla Zacate Grande, elev. NSL–1,350 m); El Salvador (Morazán, San Miguel, San Salvador, 250–960 m); W Nicaragua (Carazo, Chinandega, Estelí, Granada, Managua, Rivas, elev. 40–1,100 m); and NW Costa Rica (Alajuela, Guanacaste, N Puntarenas, including Islas Murciélagos, San José, elev. NSL–1,125 m), overall elevevation 0–1,350 m Type locality: Managua, Nicaragua. nasalis: Nicaragua; Type locality: Managua,Nicaragua. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: USNM 79947 Holotype: USNM 16134 [nasalis] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Epictia ater, along with E. bakewelli, are the two species of this complex under study herein to have the rostral fused with the frontal (prefrontal) scale, thus the fused rostral-frontal scale contacts the postfrontal scale. Epictia ater differs most obviously from E. bakewelli in having the ventral surfaces essentially the same color as the dorsal surfaces (versus underside of head and about anterior third of venter distinctly paler brown than the brown dorsal surfaces in E. bakewelli). Epictia ater also differs from E. bakewelli in having the dark body stripes absent or indistinct (versus those stripes distinct in E. bakewelli). The single E. ater specimen with a frontal scale differs from two of the three species that also have a frontal scale, E. goudotii and E. magnamaculata, as follows: from E. goudotii in having the pale tail spot, when present, much larger ventrally than dorsally (versus tail spot larger dorsally than ventrally when present in E. goudotii); from E. magnamaculata in lacking distinct black body stripes and having the pale tail spot, when present, much larger ventrally than dorsally (versus distinct black stripes present and pale tail spot usually larger dorsally than ventrally in E. magnamaculata). A specimen of E. ater with a frontal scale can be difficult to distinguish morphologically from the normal E. phenops [MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2016: 17]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: after Wallach 2016. See this paper for more complete chresonomy and references. Both Leptotyphlops ater Taylor, 1940 and L. nasalis Taylor, 1940 were described from Managua, Nicaragua. As first revisers, Dunn and Saxe (1950), who considered the taxa synonymous, selected E. ater as the name for the Nicaraguan population. Distribution: see map in MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2016: Fig. 4 and WALLACH 2016: 231 (Map 1). Habitat: This species frequents pine-oak forest in El Salvador (Köhler et al., 2006). In Honduras it inhabits lower montane rainforest, evergreen and semi-evergreen seasonal forest, tropical deciduous forest, short-tree savanna, and thorn woodland (Johnson, 1989), subtropical wet forest, hardwood cloud forest, and humid pine-oak forest (Wilson et al., 2001) and lowland arid, dry and moist forest, and premontane dry and moist forest (McCranie, 2011). In Nicaragua it occurs in lowland arid forest and premontane wet forest (Sunyer and Köhler, 2010) and dry tropical forest (Guevara-Alonso, 2012). In Costa Rica it is found within lowland dry forests and wet premontane wet forests (Bolaños et al., 2005; Sasa et al., 2010; from Wallach 2016: 231). |
| Etymology | named after its coloration, from Latin “ater”, meaning black. |
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