Posicionamento taxonômico e variação geográfica de populações do gênero Amerotyphlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) das restingas da porção norte do estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Amerotyphlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) comprises 19 species that occur in the continental portions of Central and South America, as well as insular parts of Grenada, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. In Brazil, there are currently 11 recognized species of Amerotyphlops, four of which were recently described. The present study investigated the taxonomic position of Amerotyphlops populations that occur in restinga areas in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro and southern part of Espírito Santo States. The external morphology (meristic data, morphometrics, color patterns) and internal morphology (hemipenes) of representative samples from these regions were examined in detail. The DNA sequences previously available in GenBank and new sequences produced from some mitochondrial (12S, 16S and COX1) and nuclear (BDNF) molecular markers were used in phylogenetic inference from analyses of Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference to obtain the positioning of these populations in the Amerotyphlops phylogeny. Based on the results presented here, it is proposed that Amerotyphlops illusorium be synonymized with Amerotyphlops brongersmianus and that the populations of the restingas in the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro and the south of Espírito Santo are Amerotyphlops martis, expand significantly the geographic distribution and morphological variation of the species.