RESUMO
Erythrolamprus Boie, 1826 is a highly diverse dipsadid snake genus, ranging from Central America south to Argentina and Uruguay. In this work, we reassess the taxonomic status of specimens previously identified as Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus schotti (Schlegel, 1837) from the savannah habitats of Roraima state, northern Brazil, Guyana, and Bolívarstate, Venezuela. Based on novel molecular and morphological evidence, we conclude that these specimens represent a distinct, diagnosable and reciprocally monophyletic taxon. We here describe it as a new species. Furthermore, we comment on the taxonomy of other Erythrolamprus spp
RESUMO
We document the first specimen of a dipsadid snake from the Anguilla Cays, Cay Sal Bank, The Bahamas. We analyze 3,426 base pairs (bp) of sequence data derived from five mitochondrial loci and one nuclear locus using Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) methods. Our molecular data agree with some aspects of morphology (e.g., scale counts, dentition, and color pattern) supporting identification of this specimen as the Cuban Racer, Cubophis cantherigerus cantherigerus (Bibron 1840), a species previously regarded as endemic to Cuba. This discovery provides another example of the strong Cuban affinities of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Bahamian islands.