the journal of NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 2 Ch eck L KS t biodiversity data Check List 15 (2): 485-488 https://doi.org/10.15560/15.2.485 > PENSUFT. New record of Tantilla alticola (Boulenger, 1903) (Serpentes, Colubridae) for the Central Cordillera in the department of Tolima, Colombia Ronald Mauricio Parra-Hernandez!*, Duvan F. Zambrano*, Manuel Hernando Bernal? 1 Grupo de Biodiversidad y Ecologia Tropical (GIBDET). 2 Asociacion Tolimense de Ornitologia (ATO). 3 Grupo de Herpetologia, Eco-Fisiologia y Etologia. Departamento de Biologia. Universidad del Tolima, 730006299, Ibagué, Colombia. Corresponding author: Manuel Hernando Bernal, mhbernal@ut.edu.co Abstract We report for the first time the presence of Jantilla alticola in the department of Tolima, Colombia. This report repre- sents the southernmost distribution point for this species 1n the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. Keywords Distribution, diversity, leaf-litter snakes, morphology, taxonomy. Academic editor: Rafael de Fraga | Received 20 Novmber 2018 | Accepted 25 February 2019 | Published 14 June 2019 Citation: Parra-Hernandez RM, Zambrano DV, Bernal MH (2018) New record of TJantilla alticola (Boulenger, 1903) (Serpentes, Colubridae) for the Central Cordillera in the department of Tolima, Colombia. Check List 15 (3): 485-488. https://doi.org/10.15560/15.3.485 Introduction The genus Zantilla Baird & Girard, 1853 is consid- ered one of the richest of the family Colubridae, as it is currently composed by 66 species (Wilson 1982, Townsend et al. 2013, Wilson and Mata-Silva 2015, Uetz et al. 2018). The genus is distributed in a wide latitudi- nal range from the southeastern and southcentral United States to northern Argentina and Uruguay, with 1 spe- cies in Trinidad and Tobago (Wilson 1982, Vera-Pérez et al. 2015). Colombia harbors 6 species: T: alticola Bou- lenger, 1903, 7. melanocephala Linnaeus, 1758, T: nigra Boulenger, 1914, 7: reticulata Cope, 1860, T. semicincta Dumeril, Bibron & Dumeéril, 1854, and 7 supracincta Peters, 1863 (Hurtado-Gomez et al. 2015), all of which live 1n the lowlands (less than 1,500 m altitude), although T. alticola and T: melanocephala can also be found in the highlands up to 2,740 m altitude (Wilson and Mata- Silva 2015). Particularly, Tantilla alticola is a species distributed from Nicaragua to northwestern Colombia and Ecuador (Wilson 1982, Myers et al. 2013, Pazmifio-Otamendi 2017). In Colombia, this species has been reported in the departments of Antioquia (Wilson 1982), Caldas (Rojas- Morales et al. 2018), Choco (Castafio-M et al. 2004), Narifio (Mueses-Cisneros and Cepeda-Quilindo 2006) and Valle del Cauca (Vanegas-Guerrero et al. 2015), between 91 and 2,743 m altitude (Fig. 1). Herein, we record 2 new localities for this species in the department of Tolima, Colombia. Methods Two snakes were found dead by Ronald Mauricio Parra- Hernandez, one of them on 16 December 2016 in the municipality of Fresno and the other one on 25 Novem- ber 2017 around the School Normal Superior, munici- pality of Falan, both places located in the department Copyright Parra-Herndndez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 486 84.0°W 82.0°w 80.0°W 4 12.0°N . Nicafagua 10.0°N 8.0°N 6.0°N 4.0°N 2.0°N 0.0° 86.0°W 84.0°w 82.0°W 80.0°w Ecua Check List 15 (3) 78.0°W 76.0°W 74.0°W 12.0°N 10.0°N Pai a ! 0.0° 78.0°W 76.0°W 74.0°W 72.0° w Figure 1. Geographic distribution of Tantilla alticola. Blue circles indicate locations previously reported by Myers et al. (2013), Vanegas- Guerrero et al. (2015), Vera-Perez et al. (2015) and Rojas-Morales et al. (2018). Purple dots and polygons: data from Center for Biodiversity, Temple University, and IUCN (2017). Blue squares: data from Museo de La Salle (MLS). Red squares: new records for the department of Tolima. of Tolima, Central Cordillera of Colombia. The speci- mens were rinsed with water, fixed in 10% formalin and preserved in 70% ethanol. Thereafter, the 2 specimens were housed in the herpetological collection of the Uni- versidad del Tolima (CZUT-R), where the snakes were identified as Tantilla alticola. The species identification was based on the taxonomic keys and description of Wil- son (1987), Savage (2002) and Wilson and Mata-Silva (2015). Additionally, the snake specialist John D. Lynch, from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, confirmed the identity of this species. The sex of the 2 individuals was determined by gonadal examination. Results New records. 1) Colombia: department of Tolima: munic- ipality of Fresno, La Sierra (05°10'08" N, 075°00'02”" W; elev. 1,082 m). A female (Fig. 2), SVL: 199.33 mm, tail truncated with a remaining length of 29.88 mm (CZUT- R 0489). 2) Colombia: department of Tolima: municipal- ity of Falan, Pie de Cuesta (05°07'24” N, 074°58'16" W; elev. 1,131 m). A female, probably a juvenile or subadult, SVL: 108.42 mm, tail truncated with a remaining length of 25.78 mm (CZUT-R 0503). These 2 individuals were located on logging roads next to small patches of forests and agricultural zones. Figure 2. Dorsal view of adult female of Tantilla alticola from Fresno (Tolima). Photograph by Juan S. Forero. Parra-Hernandez et al. | New records of Tantilla alticola in Colombia 487 Figure 3. Cephalic scaling differences between Tantilla alticola (A, B) and Tantilla melanocephala (C, D). A. Lateral view showing second supralabial scale separated from the prefrontal by the postnasal and preocular scales. B. Ventral view showing first pair of infralabials separated by the mental scale. C. Lateral view showing second supralabial scale in contact with the prefrontal. D. First pair of infralabials in contact. Photographed by Juan S. Forero and edited by authors. Identification. The individuals had the typical color and diagnostic characters of the species, such as a uni- form dark brown color on the dorsal and lateral scales extending to the tail, pale snout, cream venter, preocular and postocular pale spots on supralabials, and a distinct nuchal band of cream color (Wilson 1986, 1987, Savage 2002, Wilson and Mata-Silva 2015) (Fig. 3). In addition, they presented the following morphological character- istics: ventral scales 138, dorsal scale rows 15—15-—15, supralabials 7 (3—4), infralabials 6 (1-4), postoculars 2, preocular 1, temporal scales 1+1, loreal absent, cloacal scute and nasal scale divided. Particularly, these speci- mens have the second supralabial scale separated from the prefrontral scale by the postnasal and preocular scales (Fig. 3A), and the first pair of infralabials sepa- rated by the mental scale (Fig. 3B). Discussion The other species of Tantilla recorded in the department of Tolima are 7’ melanocephala (Linnaeus 1758) and T- semicincta (Duméril, Bibron & Dumeéril 1854), which are noticeably different from 7° alticola, based on color pattern. For instance, 7? melanocephala has a dark band on the neck, a middorsal dark stripe, and a cream ven- ter. In addition, some specimens of 7: melanocephala from Tolima (e.g., CZUT-R 0504; 0505) have the second supralabial and prefrontal scales in contact as well as the first infralabials (Fig. 3C, D) (separated in 7° alticola). On the other hand, 7. semicincta has black crossbands on the pale color of the body or a pair of dark longitudinal dorsolateral lines enclosing a pale middorsal line (Wil- son 1976, 1987). Furthermore, this species is distributed only in lowland dry forests from near sea level to 950 m altitude (Ortega et al. 2016). Tantilla alticola has been reported for the Central Cordillera of Colombia in the type-locality, Santa Rita, north of Medellin, department of Antioquia, Colom- bia (Wilson 1987) and recently in the municipalities of La Victoria and Norcasia (department of Caldas) (Rojas-Morales et al. 2018) (Fig. 1). However, we have found 4 more records of 7: alticola in the collection of the Museum of Natural Sciences, Universidad de La Salle, Bogota, Colombia, 3 for the department of Antio- quia, municipality of Campamento (MLS 2209), Sego- via (MLS 1237) and Yarumal (MLS 1817), and 1 for the department of Caldas, municipality of Pueblo Rico (MLS 1239). Therefore, this new report in the depart- ment of Tolima extends the distribution of this species in the Andean mountains and represents the southernmost record for the Central Cordillera in Colombia. 488 Acknowledgments This work was supported by the project Snakes from the North of department of Tolima (Project Cultura Cienti- fica) to Ronald Mauricio Parra, and Fondo de Investiga- ciones de la Universidad del Tolima to Manuel Hernando Bernal. We thank John D. Lynch for his valuable help to confirm the identity of this species, and Fernando Sarmiento Parra for allowing us access to the Museo de La Salle (MLS). Authors’ Contributions RMP, DZ and MHB wrote the text; RMP collected the specimens in the field; RMP, DZ, and MHB examined the specimens; and DZ and RMP drew the map and figures. References Castafio-M O, Cardenas-A G, Hernandez E, Castro F (2004) Rep- tiles en el Choco biogeografico-Catalogo. 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