A revision of the South American snake genusThamnodynastes Wagler, 1830

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Memoria de la Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales 2007 (“2006”), 166: 7-27

A revision of the South American snake genus Thamnodynastes Wagler, 1830 (Serpentes: Colubridae, Tachymenini). II. Three new species from northern South America, with further descriptions of Thamnodynastes gambotensis Pérez-Santos and Moreno and Thamnodynastes ramonriveroi Manzanilla and Sánchez †Joseph R. Bailey and Robert A. Thomas

Abstract. Three new species of the snake genus Thamnodynastes are described from northern South America: T. ceibae from the Lake Maracaibo Basin of Venezuela, T. dixoni from the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela, and T. paraguanae from the coastal areas of the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia from the northern Lake Maracaibo Basin and Paraguaná Peninsula of Venezuela. Further descriptions are provided for T. gambotensis and the recently described T. ramonriveroi. Key words. Serpentes. Colubridae. Xenodontinae. Tachymenini. Thamnodynastes.

Revisión de las serpientes suramericanas del género Thamnodynastes Wagler 1830 (Serpentes: Colubridae, Tachymenini). II. Tres nuevas especies del norte de Suramérica, con descripciones adicionales de Thamnodynastes gambotensis P é rez-Santos y Thamnodynastes ramonriveroi Manzanilla y Sánchez Resumen. Se describen tres especies del género Thamnodynastes del norte de Suramérica: Thamnodynastes ceibae proveniente del sur de la hoya del lago de Maracaibo, T. dixoni de la región llanera de Venezuela y Colombia y T. paraguanae de las áreas costeras de la península de la Guajira en Colombia, norte de la hoya del Lago de Maracaibo y península de Paraguaná en Venezuela. Se presentan descripciones adicionales de Thamnodynastes gambotensis y T. ramonriveroi. Palabras clave. Serpentes. Colubridae. Xenodontinae. Tachymenini. Thamnodynastes.

Introduction The herpetological literature of northern South America is liberally sprinkled with specimens identified as “T h a m n o d y n a stes sp.” This is due to the fact that Thamnodynastes is among the most misunderstood snake genera in the world, coupled with confusion about the definition of T. strigilis (virtually every Thamnodynastes specimen with keeled dorsal scales is classified as this species). Bailey et al. (2005) resolved the problem by, after examining its syntypes, placing T. strigilis (Thunberg 1787) in the synonomy of T. pallidus (Linnaeus 1758), thus facilitating the assignment of new names and clarifying relationships within the genus. The following species of Thamnodynastes are components of the Venezuelan and Colombian herpetofaunas: T. chimanta Roze 1958, T. corocoroensis Gorzula and


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