Siagonodon cupinensis (BAILEY & CARVALHO, 1946)
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Siagonodon cupinensis
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| Higher Taxa | Leptotyphlopidae, Epictinae, Epictini, Typhlopoidea, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Mato Grosso Blind Snake Portuguese: Cobra-Cega |
| Synonym | Leptotyphlops cupinensis BAILEY & CARVALHO 1946 Leptotyphlops eupinensis BATTERSBY & SWINTON 1954 (error typographicus) Leptotyphlops cupinensis — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 27 Siagonodon cupinensis — ADALSTEINSSON, BRANCH, TRAPE, VITT & HEDGES 2009 Siagonodon cupinensis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 666 Siagonodon cupinensis — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Amapa), Suriname (Lely Mountains). Type locality: Rio Tapirape, tributary of Rio Araguaia, Mato Grosso, Brasil |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: MNRJ 387, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Siagonodon cupinensis can be distinguished from other congeners by the following combination of characters: body cylindrical; snout truncate in dorsal, lateral, and ventral views; supralabials two (1þ1); infralabials four (n = 62) or rarely three (n = 2); lacking supraocular scales; rostral subrectangular in dorsal view; ocular subheptagonal in lateral view, with pointed apex; eye absent (n = 39) or, when present, reduced to an ocular blot on anterodorsal portion of ocular scale (n = 24); frontal scale wider (n = 47) or the same width as rostral scale (n = 16); first supralabial scale shorter (n = 34) or the same height (n = 30) as infranasal scale; temporal indistinct; fused caudals absent; middorsal scales 255–283 (n = 12) in males, 247–293 (n = 33) in females; midventral scales 224–267 (n = 12) in males, 228–270 (n = 33) in females; subcaudal scales 12–15 (n = 12) in males, 12–16 (n = 33) in females; 14 scales around the body and tail; uniform color pattern golden (n = 40), yellow (n = 12), or pale yellow (n = 11) [Francisco et al. 2018]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: Amaral (1954) placed S. cupinensis in the synonymy of S. septemstriatus based on drawings of Jan and Sordelli (1860; fig. 13). Orejas-Miranda (1966) analyzed the holotype of S. cupinensis and revalidated the taxon. One specimen (MZUSP 5072) that was originally identified as S. septemstriatus was= reidentified as S. cupinensis by Francisco et al. 2018 due to the number of middorsal and midventral scales (266 and 257, respectively), and by having 14 scales around the tail. Distribution: see Martins et al. 2020: 852 (Fig. 12) for a map of all 4 Siagonodon species, the sister clade of Habrophallos. See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. |
| Etymology | Named after the termite hill in which the species was found and which are called “cupin” by Brazilian indigenous people. |
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