The genus Siphonops includes fives species (S.insulanus, S. leucoderus, S. hardyi, S. annulatus and S. paulensis). Siphonops insulanus and S. leucoderus have been reported previously only from their type localities in Brazil: Ilha Victoria for Siphonops insulanus and Ilha de São Sebastião for S. leucoderus, both areas in the state of São Paulo, Brazil and from an indefinite type locality in the state of Bahia, Brazil (Taylor 1968; Frost, 2012). Siphonops hardyi is distributed across southeastern Brazil: the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, and Minas Gerais (Frost, 2011). Siphonops annulatus is the species with the largest distribution range among all Siphonops. It occurs in French Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. In Brazil, this species occurs in the states of Pará, Amazonas, Rondônia, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, EspíritoSanto, and Bahia (Frost, 2012; Maciel and Hoogmoed, 2011). Recently, Siphonops paulensis Boettger, 1892 was reported in the tropical dry forests in Brazil, located in the south of the Amazon basin, and in Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. (Frost, 2012).

Herein, we provide a new distribution record of Siphonops paulensis in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, which represents the northernmost locality for the species occurrence (Figure 1). On January 15 2010, at 05:30 pm we found an individual of Siphonops paulensis (SVL: 387 mm, 112 annuli, Figure 2) on the soil surface, in an environment of riparian forest. It was within a Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna) area, located at a site known as Itamacaoca, in the municipality of Chapadinha, Maranhão, Brazil (-3.7446 and -43.3268, WGS1984). Itamacaoca belongs to a public water company (Companhia de Águas e Esgotos do Maranhão – CAEMA), and has an area of about 460 hectares. In the central part of this fragment there is a water reservoir of approximately 27 hectares and an 850,000 m³ capacity.

Wilkinson et al. (2008) argued that Siphonops annulatus has the broadest distribution of any known terrestrial caecilian species. However, as demonstrated in this study, the range of Siphonops paulensis can be as wide as that of Siphonops annulatus. It is important to carry out studies on amphibian communities in the Cerrado environments of Northeastern Brazil in order to better understand the precise geographical distribution of these species.

The specimen of Siphonops paulensis cited here is deposited in the Coleção Herpetológica “Claude d’Abbeville” at the Universidade Federal do Maranhão (CCAA/UFMA), Maranhão, Brazil (CHMA 502).

Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Adenias Teixeira and Rosiane Araújo for field assistance, Kristen Hammer for English review of the manuscript. JPM received grants from FAPEMA (Process APP-01131/10 and INFRA-00563/10). RFM thanks FAPEMA for his scholarship (Process BATI-01113/11). CFDR received grants from CNPq (Processes 304791/2010-5 and 472287/2012-5) and from FAPERJ (Process E-26.102.765/2012) through Programa Cientistas do Nosso Estado. ICMBio permit number 22843-1. Davor Vrcibradic and Zoltan Nagy provided valuable suggestions on the manuscript.

Herpetology Notes, volume 6: 327-329 (2013) (published online on 30 July 2013)

New record and distribution extension of Siphonops paulensis (Gymnophiona: Siphonopidae) in the state of Maranhão,

Northeastern Brazil

Jivanildo Pinheiro Miranda1*, Romário Ferreira de Matos2, Fabiano Michelleto Scarpa3 , Carlos Frederico D. Rocha4

1Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Centro de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais, MA-230, Km 4, s/n, CEP 65500-000, Chapadinha, MA, Brazil.

2Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Centro de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais, MA-230, Km 4, s/n, CEP 65500-000, Chapadinha, MA, Brazil.

3Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Av.dos Astronautas, 1758, CEP: 12227010, Jardim da Granja, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

4Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Ecologia, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, CEP 20550-011, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

*Corresponding author: jivanildo@gmail.com

Jivanildo Pinheiro Miranda et al.328

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Figure 1. Distribution of Siphonops paulensis in South America. Closed circles represent data from literature. The star represents our record in Chapadinha, Maranhão, Brazil. 1. Type locality: São Paulo, Brazil; 2. Taubaté, Brazil (Dunn, 1942); 3. Teresópolis, Brazil (Sawaya, 1937); 4. Uberlândia, Brazil (Kokubum and Menin, 2001); 5. Anápolis (Dunn, 1942); 6. Brasília, Brazil (Kokubum and Menin, 2001); 7. Minaçú, Brazil (Souza et al., 2002); 8. Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins (Valdujo et al., 2011); 9.Ceará Mirim, Brazil (Schmidt and Inger, 1951); 10. Frederico Westphalen, Brazil (Lema and Martins, 2011); 11. Tenente Portela, Brazil (Braun and Braun, 1980); 12. Cruz Alta, Brazil (Braun and Braun, 1980); 13. São Borja, Brazil (Braun and Braun, 1980); 14. San Ignacio, Argentina (Dunn, 1942); 15. Villarrica, Paraguay (Dunn, 1942); 16. Corumbá, Brazil (Dunn, 1942); Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia (Dunn, 1942); 18. Buena Vista, Bolivia (Dunn, 1942).

Sawaya, P. (1937): Sobre o gênero Siphonops Wagler 1828-Amphibia-Apoda- com descripção de duas variedades novas: S. annulatus (Mikan) var. marmoratus e S. paulensis Boettg. var. maculatus. Boletim da Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras da Universidade de São Paulo 1: 225-263.

Schmidt, K.E, Inger, R.F. (1951): Amphibians and reptiles of the Hopkins-Branner expedition to Brazil. Fieldiana Zoology 31: 439-465.

Souza, I. F., Silva, H.L.R., Silva Jr., N.J. (2002): Geographic Distribution. Siphonops paulensis. Herpetological Review 33: 146-147.

Taylor, E.H. (1968): The Caecilians of the World. A Taxonomic Review. Lawrence. University of Kansas Press.

Valdujo P.H., Camacho, A., Recoder, R.S., Teixeira Jr., M., Ghellere, J.M.B., Mott, T., Nunes, P. M.S., Nogueira, C., Rodrigues, M.T. (2011): Anfíbios da Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins, região do Jalapão, Estados do Tocantins e Bahia. Biota Neotropica 11: 251-262.

329New record and distribution extension of Siphonops paulensis

Accepted by Zoltan T. Nagy

Figure 2. Specimen of Siphonops paulensis from Itamacaoca, Chapadinha, Maranhão, Brazil. Lower right: Detail of the head. Notice the diagnostic characteristics of the species: the number of annuli (112 for this specimen) and the position of the tentacle on the head.