Epicrates

Herpetological Monographs, 22, 2008, 1–30 E 2008 by The Herpetologists’ League, Inc.

REVISION OF THE EPICRATES CENCHRIA COMPLEX (SERPENTES: BOIDAE)
PAULO PASSOS1
AND

RONALDO FERNANDES

Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20940-040, Brazil ABSTRACT: The Epicrates cenchria complex is endemic to the Neotropical region, occurring in mainland portions of Central and South America. The taxonomic status of the nine currently recognized subspecies (E. c. alvarezi, E. c. assisi, E. c. barbouri, E. c. cenchria, E. c. crassus, E. c. gaigei, E. c. hygrophilus, E. c. maurus, and E. c. polylepis), were evaluated based on external morphology, osteology, and hemipenis characters. Results obtained through quantitative and qualitative analyses support the recognition of E. alvarezi, E. assisi, E. cenchria, E. crassus, and E. maurus as distinct species based on statistically robust delimitation of species boundaries. Key words: Boinae; Epicrates cenchria complex; Morphological variation; Morphometry; Species boundaries; Taxonomy.

THE boid genus Epicrates Wagler is currently recognized as a paraphyletic group with respect to Eunectes Wagler, owing to recent studies those found mainland Epicrates in a sister relationship group with Eunectes (Burbrink, 2005; Noonan and Chippindale, 2006). The genus is endemic to the Neotropical region, and contains ten species (Kluge, 1989; McDiarmid et al., 1999) comprising two monophyletic groups (Burbrink, 2005; Kluge, 1989; Noonan & Chippindale, 2006; Passos, 2003). An insular group distributed in the West Indian islands contains 21 taxa (Henderson and Powell, 2007), whereas the continental endemic Epicrates cenchria (Linnaeus) has nine currently recognized subspecies (McDiarmid et al., 1999), but see bellow. The Epicrates cenchria complex (sensu McDiarmid et al., 1999) is a monophyletic group (Passos 2003), ranging from mainland portions of