First confirmed record of Atractus maculatus ( Serpentes , Dipsadidae ) from the state of Pernambuco , northeastern Brazil

Atractus maculatus, classified as Data Deficient by the Brazil’s Ministério do Meio Ambiente, is recorded from a sixth known locality. The specimen was collected in the municipality of Paudalho, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. This is the first confirmed record of A. maculatus from this state and extends this species’ distribution by 153 km northeast of previously known occurrences. A map shows the occurrences throughout the whole range of this species.

The genus Atractus Wagler, 1828 comprises cryptozoic snakes that are widely distributed in the Neotropical Region, occurring from Panama to northeastern Argentina (Giraudo & Scrocchi 2000;Myers 2003).It is the world's most species rich genus of snakes and currently includes more than 140 valid species (Salazar-Valenzuela et al. 2014).Despite the growing number of studies in recent years on this genus, with frequent descriptions of new species, synonyms, and rediscovery (Passos et al. 2016), a large number of the species remain known only from the holotype or other type material and often known from only one locality (Passos et al. 2010).The Wallacean deficit is therefore still quite pronounced in the genus Atractus.
For more than a century, the name Atractus maculatus (Günther, 1858) was used to allocate specimens from the northeastern to the southern regions of Brazil (e.g., Moura-Leite et al. 1996;Cáceres 2004).This panorama was modified by Fernandes et al. (2000), who revalidated the name Rabdosoma zebrinum Jan, 1862 (as Atractus zebrinus) for the populations distributed from the south areas of Bahia state to Santa Catarina state.Thus, A. maculatus was restricted to populations in Alagoas state.As currently recognized, A. maculatus is known only from five localities in remnants of the Atlantic Forest of the Alagoas at altitudes of 0-500 m (Passos et al. 2010).In this study, we present a new record for A. maculatus, the first confirmed in the state of Pernambuco (northeasern Brazil).

Notes oN GeoGraphic DistributioN
above sea level.The individual was captured in a pit-fall trap (collecting permit SISBio 53914-1), euthanized, and deposited in the herpetological and paleontological collection of Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (CHP-UFRPE 0720) (Figure 2).Our record increases the distribution of the species by about 153 km northeast from the municipality of Ibateguara, Alagoas, and constitutes the sixth known locality for A. maculatus.
The specimen was identified based on morphological analysis using data in the literature (Passos et al. 2010).Atractus maculatus occurs in probable sympatry with two other species of the same genus (A.caete Passos, Fernandes, Bérnils &Moura-Leite, 2010 andA. potschi Fernandes, 1995) (see Passos et al. 2010).Atractus maculatus is easily differentiated from A. caete by the dorsal color pattern (reddish with dark transverse bands in A. maculatus vs. uniformly black back in A. caete) (Passos et al. 2010).It differs from A. potschi by the number of dorsal scales (17/17/17 in A. maculatus vs. 15/15/15 in A. potschi).For other diagnostic details between these three species, see Passos et al. (2010).In addition, the our specimen is in agreement with the diagnosis of the species, according to Passos et al. (2010).Passos et al. (2010) presented a map with the geographical distribution of A. maculatus, and a descriptive paragraph with more specific information about some of the records.However, the map and the textual information differ.In the text, the occurrence of A. maculatus is presented as follows: "Atlantic Forest remnants in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, from Serra Talhada (07°59ʹ S, 38°18ʹ W) southeastward to São Miguel dos Campos (09°47ʹ S, 36°05ʹ W" (Passos et al. 2010: 21).On the map, however, there is no record for Pernambuco.This discrepancy occurred due to uncertainties regarding the origin of the material studied by Passos et al. (2010), from the Campus Serra Talhada, Federal University of Pernambuco, and it was not possible to confirm if the specimen came from the municipality of Serra Talhada, and therefore, this record was not included in the distribution map (Paulo Passos, pers. comm.).Given that the municipality of Serra Talhada is located in the Caatinga area and not in the Atlantic Forest, as the remaining known occurrences of A.
Figure 1.Distribution map for Atractus maculatus, with the new record in Paudalho (red circle), state of Pernambuco, Brazil.Other symbols represent literature records.