Francisco L. Franco

Two New Species of Colubrid Snakes of the Genus Clelia from Brazil

-TWO new species of Clelia are described from Brazil: Clelia quimi sp. n, from southern, southeastern, and west-central Brazil, and Clelia montana sp n, which is probably restricted to the highlands of northwestern Sao Paulo and southern Minas Gerais. Clelia quimi appears to be closely related to C. bicolor, being distinguished from the latter by the number of ventral scales and the color of the supralabials. Clelia montana sp. n. seems allied to C. rustica, differing from the latter by the numbers of supraand infralabials and the generalized color pattern. The genus Clelia Fitzinger, 1826, is currently included in the subfamily Xenodontinae Bonaparte, 1845, and in the tribe Pseudoboini Jenner and Dowling, 1985. The inclusion of this genus in the Pseudoboini is based mainly on hemipenis morphology (Jenner and Dowling, 1985). Geographical congruency and the immunologic distance of albumins also support Clelias relationship with the other nine genera included in this tribe (Jenner and Dowling, 1985). The genus Clelia is distributed through most of the Neotropical region, from southern Mexico (Bailey, 1970) to about 42?S, east of the Andes in Argentina (Bailey, 1970; Schrocchi and Vifias, 1990). Bailey (1970) recognized six species: C. bicolor (Peracca, 1904); C. clelia (Daudin, 1803), with two subspecies C. c. clelia (Daudin, 1803) and C. c. plumbea (Wied, 1820); C. equatoriana (Amaral, 1924); C. rustica (Cope, 1878); C. scytalina (Cope, 1867); and C. occipitolutea (Dumeril, Bibron and Dumeril, 1854). Recently, Underwood (1993) described Clelia errabunda from Saint Lucia Island (Antilles). When Scrocchi and Vifias (1990) studied the species of this genus in Argentina, they synonymized C. occipitolutea with C. c. clelia. If this synonymization is accepted, there would be two very different species named C. c. clelia in Brazil. This issue is currently being studied by H. Zaher (pers. comm.). Among the species currently considered, three have been recorded for Brazil: C. clelia, found in forest formations (Bailey, 1970; Cunha and Nascimento, 1978) and in the Pantanal wetlands (Striissmann and Sazima, 1993); C. rustica, apparently limited to the colder regions in the southern parts of the country (Bailey, 1970); and 483 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.92 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 04:57:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Timeless standards for species delimitation

Recently a new species of bombyliid fly, Marleyimyia xylocopae, was described by Marshall & Evenhuis (2015) based on two photographs taken during fieldwork in the Republic of South Africa. This species has no preserved holotype. The paper generated some buzz, especially among dipterists, because in most cases photographs taken in the field provide insufficient information for properly diagnosing and documenting species of Diptera.

Taxonomic status and morphological variation of Hydrodynastes bicinctus (Hermann, 1804) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae)

Hydrodynastes bicinctus was described with no type material or locality and it has two subspecies currently recognized that are not taxonomically well defined. We tested the validity of the two subspecies through meristic, morphometric, and color pattern characters. Two apparently distinct color patterns of H. bicinctus were noticed, one from the Cerrado open formations and the other from the Amazon rainforest. These aforementioned patterns, however, exhibited a high degree of geographic overlap and many specimens showed a blended pattern. Based on these results we propose synonymizing H. bicinctus schultzi with the nominal taxon. Furthermore, we designate a neotype for the species, present data on geographic distribution, and provide morphological descriptions of the hemipenis, cephalic glands, and skull.

Brazilian legislation on genetic heritage harms Biodiversity Convention goals and threatens basic biology research and education.

Beginning in November 2018, Brazilian legislation regulating access to genetic heritage and associated traditional knowledge will cause a bureaucratic collapse of Biodiversity research in Brazil. Law number 13.123/2015 and Decree 8772/2016 impose severe barriers to basic and applied research, and to international cooperation by introducing mandatory registry of research access to native organisms in Brazil. This legal framework was meant to improve governmental control over systems of biotechnology research using genetic material and associated chemical compounds, which are central points of the Nagoya Protocol (CBD 2011) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1992, 2012). However, the requirements imposed by the mandatory registry of research in the new National System for Governance of Genetic Heritage and Associated Traditional Knowledge (SisGen), the system of Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), and the need to record access to organismal data prior to publication of scientific results or exportation of specimens for scientific research are technically impracticable and not part of the Nagoya Protocol or CBD ..

A NEW SPECIES OF CALAMODONTOPHIS AMARAL, 1963 (SERPENTES, COLUBRIDAE, XENODONTINAE) FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Abstract We describe a new species of the poorly known genus Calamodontophis from the state of Paraná, Southern Brazil. The new species is compared with C. paucidens and species of related genera. We provide comments on the generic relationships of Calamodontophis within the xenodontine radiation, as well as on the behavioral, feeding, and reproductive aspects of the biology of the group.