A new species of Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from the Orinoquian region of Colombia

In northern South America, amphisbaenians are rarely seen among the herpetofauna.Thus, general knowledge about them is very poor. During a herpetological survey in 2012 at Casanare, Colombia, we found two specimens of an unusual Amphisbaena. A third specimen sharing the same morphotype labeled Amphisbaena sp. from Vichada department was found deposided in an Colombian reptile collection. Based on morphological analyses together with phylogenetic analyses of 1029 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we describe a new species of Amphisbaena that inhabits in the Orinoquian region of Colombia. The new species is part of a phylogenetic clade together with A. mertensii and A. cunhai (central-southern Brazil), exhibiting a great genetic distance (26.1–28.9%) between the newly identified lineage versus those taxa, and versus the sympatric taxa A. alba and A. fuliginosa. Morphologically, this new Amphisbaena can be distinguished from their congeners by characters combination of number of preocloacal pores, absence of malar scale, postgenial scales and body and caudal annuli counts. Amphisbaena gracilis is on morphology grounds the most similar species. However, the new species can be distinguished from it by having higher body annuli counts, angulus ories aliegned with the edges of the ocular scales and center of frontal scales, less number of large middorsal segments of the first and second body annulus, and rostral scale visible from above. The description of this new Amphisbaena species points out the urgent need to increase the knowledge of worm lizards in Colombia

A new species of Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from the Orinoquian region of Colombia

In northern South America, amphisbaenians are rarely seen among the herpetofauna.Thus, general knowledge about them is very poor. During a herpetological survey in 2012 at Casanare, Colombia, we found two specimens of an unusual Amphisbaena. A third specimen sharing the same morphotype labeled Amphisbaena sp. from Vichada department was found deposided in an Colombian reptile collection. Based on morphological analyses together with phylogenetic analyses of 1029 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we describe a new species of Amphisbaena that inhabits in the Orinoquian region of Colombia. The new species is part of a phylogenetic clade together with A. mertensii and A. cunhai (central-southern Brazil), exhibiting a great genetic distance (26.1–28.9%) between the newly identified lineage versus those taxa, and versus the sympatric taxa A. alba and A. fuliginosa. Morphologically, this new Amphisbaena can be distinguished from their congeners by characters combination of number of preocloacal pores, absence of malar scale, postgenial scales and body and caudal annuli counts. Amphisbaena gracilis is on morphology grounds the most similar species. However, the new species can be distinguished from it by having higher body annuli counts, angulus ories aliegned with the edges of the ocular scales and center of frontal scales, less number of large middorsal segments of the first and second body annulus, and rostral scale visible from above. The description of this new Amphisbaena species points out the urgent need to increase the knowledge of worm lizards in Colombia

Ophiocordyceps neonutans sp. nov., a new neotropical species from O. nutans complex (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Ascomycota)

Ophiocordyceps nutans is an entomogenous fungus growing on true bugs (Hemiptera), which has a presumed worldwide distribution. During forays of entomogenous fungi in Brazil, specimens morphologically similar to O. nutans were collected from the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado domains of Neotropical region. Morphological comparisons, as well as molecular phylogenetic analyses using ITS, led us to conclude that the neotropical specimens represent a new species Ophiocordyceps neonutans. The Neotropical occurrence of this taxon and its taxonomic implications are re-evaluated here. We discuss O. nutans as a species complex with distinct geographic lineages and host specificity. In addition, Barcoding gap analysis suggests that the different lineages have a great genetic distance between them.

Three new species of Coecobrya (Collembola: Entomobryidae) from caves in the Thai Peninsula

Three new species of the genus Coecobrya are described from caves in the Thai Peninsula for the first time: C. cavicta sp. nov. and C. polychaeta sp. nov. from Satun Province, and C. chumphonensis sp. nov. from Chumphon Province. These species differ in antennal length, clypeal chaetae, labial palp, sublobal chaetae of maxillary outer lobe, labial and postlabial chaetae, claw, ventral tube, manubrial plaque, and dorsal cephalic and tergal chaetotaxy. They are similar to C. annulata Zhang, Bedos & Deharveng, 2016 but differ from the latter in the combination of antennal length, claw and dorsal chaetotaxy. DNA barcoding COI sequences are provided for two species and three populations and key to the Thai species is also given. One population, which exhibits a great genetic distance (0.219–0.239) and minor but stable morphological differences from C. polychaeta sp. nov., cannot be accepted as a full species as the evidence is insufficient.