Tag: Panama

Hidden in plain sight: snake named 46 years after first discovery

Although it had been documented and studied for years, it took molecular analyses to confirm that the snake was in fact a species new to science.

A new species of snake was described from western Panama. First documented in 1977 by Dr. Charles Myers, a scientist studying amphibians and reptiles throughout Panama, it was only now that it got a scientific description.

The new snake has been given the name Dipsas aparatiritos. The genus Dipsas includes the snailsuckers, a unique group of snakes that feed on soft-bodied prey including snails extracted from their shells, slugs, and earthworms. The species epithet “aparatiritos” is Greek for unnoticed: a reference to the fact that the snake had remained hidden in plain sight for over forty years at a very well-studied field site.

A snail-eating snake. — Live individual of Dipsas aparatiritos in Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera photographed in the wild. Photo by Kevin Enge

Scientists Dr. Julie Ray, University of Nevada – Reno, Paola Sánchez-Martínez, Abel Batista, Daniel G. Mulcahy, Coleman M. Sheehy III, Eric N. Smith, R. Alexander Pyron and Alejandro Arteaga, have described the new species in a paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Dipsas aparatiritos has the characteristic bulbous head and brown-and-black patterning of many of the snakes in the genus. It looks very similar to its closest known relative, Dipsas temporalis, which is also found in Panama. It is now known that D. aparatiritos is endemic to, or known only from, the western and central parts of the country.

The Hidden Snail-eating Snake, Dipsas aparatiritos. Photo by Dr. Julie M. Ray

Panama has a rich diversity of snakes, with over 150 documented species in a country the size of Ireland or the U.S. state of South Carolina. Dr. Ray has documented over 55 species of snakes in Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera where the newly described snake is best studied, and over 80 species in Coclé Province in Central Panama. She published a field guide, Snakes of Panama, in 2017.

Four individuals of Dipsas aparatiritos intertwined on one plant at Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera. Photo by Noah Carl

Co-author of the species description Dr. Alex Pyron, The George Washington University, visited Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera in June 2013 with Dr. Frank Burbrink, American Museum of Natural History. “That was my first trip to Central America,” he says. “We were able to see the after-effects of the amphibian declines. But I was struck by the diversity and abundance of snakes that were still present, including this species of snail-eater we have just described, the rare Geophis bellus [a small leaf litter snake known from just one specimen prior to this discovery] and an unusual Coralsnake.”

Despite being a new species, Dipsas aparatiritos is relatively common in Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera and has been studied for years before it was described. Dr. Ray has published a paper about the diet of snail-eating snakes, where it was found that earthworms from bromeliads compose a large portion of the diet of Dipsas aparatiritos. She also co-authored a paper on trophic cascades following amphibian declines, where it was found that Dipsas aparatiritos actually was increasing in numbers due to a diet independent of amphibians.

Dipsas aparatiritos is already considered Near Threatened based on IUCN Red List standards. The snake is endemic to Panama and comes from a limited range in the cloud forests of mid-elevation, where at least 44% of the overall range has been deforested. In addition, as snakes are constantly persecuted by humans, almost all snake species are in danger of extinction in the near future. Efforts must be made to conserve these rare species, the researchers believe, especially as so many are just being described now.

“This work was a true collaboration of scientists from different countries each contributing their expertise to thoroughly understand this new species, morphologically and molecularly,” said Dr. Ray.

“We are in an exciting time in science. Naturalists and scientists must continue to document the natural world; there are many species out there yet to be found and described. The usage of molecular techniques is exciting and facilitates the confirmation of so many new species.”

Research article:

Ray JM, Sánchez-Martínez P, Batista A, Mulcahy DG, Sheehy III CM, Smith EN, Pyron RA, Arteaga A (2023) A new species of Dipsas (Serpentes, Dipsadidae) from central Panama. ZooKeys 1145: 131-167. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1145.96616

How did coyotes conquer North America?

Coyotes now live across North America, from Alaska to Panama, California to Maine. But where they came from, and when, has been debated for decades.

Using museum specimens and fossil records, researchers from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University have produced a comprehensive (and unprecedented) range history of the expanding species that can help reveal the ecology of predation as well as evolution through hybridization. Their findings are published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The geographic distribution of coyotes has dramatically expanded since 1900, spreading across much of North America in a period when most other mammal species have been declining. Although this unprecedented expansion has been well-documented at the state/provincial scale, continent-wide picture of coyote spread been coarse and largely anecdotal. A more thorough compilation of available records was needed.

“We began by mapping the original range of coyotes using archaeological and fossil records,” says co-author Dr. Roland Kays, Head of the Museum’s Biodiversity Lab and Research Associate Professor in NC State’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. “We then plotted their range expansion across North America from 1900 to 2016 using museum specimens, peer-reviewed reports, and game department records.”

In all, Kays and lead author James Hody, a graduate student at NC State University, reviewed more than 12,500 records covering the past 10,000 years for this study.

Their findings indicate that coyotes historically occupied a larger area of North America than generally suggested in the literature. Previous maps, as it turns out, had ancient coyotes only located across the central deserts and grasslands. However, fossils from across the arid west link the distribution of coyotes from 10,000 years ago to specimens collected in the late 1800s, proving that their geographic range was not only broader but had been established for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, which also contradicts some widely-cited descriptions of their historical distribution.

It wasn’t until approximately 1920 that coyotes began their expansion across North America. This was likely aided by an expansion of human agriculture, forest fragmentation, and hybridization with other species. Eastern expansion, in particular, was aided by hybridization with wolves and dogs, resulting in size and color variation among eastern coyotes.

Before too long, coyotes may no longer be just a North American species. Kays notes that coyotes are continually expanding their range in Central America, having crossed the Panama Canal in 2010. Active camera traps are now spotting coyotes approaching the Darien Gap, a heavily forested region separating North and South America, suggesting that they are at the doorstep of South America.

“The expansion of coyotes across the American continent offers an incredible experiment for assessing ecological questions about their roles as predators, and evolutionary questions related to their hybridization with dogs and wolves,” adds Hody.

“By collecting and mapping these museum data we were able to correct old misconceptions of their original range, and more precisely map and date their recent expansions.”

“We hope these maps will provide useful context for future research into the ecology and evolution of this incredibly adaptive carnivore,” he concludes.

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(Originally published on Eurekalert! by North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.)

Original source:

Hody JW, Kays R (2018) Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across North and Central America. ZooKeys 759: 81–97. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.759.15149

Gehry’s Biodiversity Museum – favorite attraction for the butterflies and moths in Panama

Ahead of Gehry’s Biodiversity Museum‘s opening in October 2014, PhD candidate Patricia Esther Corro Chang, Universidad de Panama, studied the butterflies and moths which had been attracted by the bright colours of the walls and which were visiting the grounds of the tourist site.

The resulting checklist, published in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal, aims to both evaluate the biodiversity and encourage the preservation and development of the Amador Causeway (Calzada de Amador) and the four Causeway Islands. The name of the islands derives from their being linked to each other and the mainland via a causeway made of rocks excavated during the construction of the Panama Canal.

The researcher reports a total of six butterfly and eight moth families, identified from the 326 specimens collected over the course of 10 months from the botanical garden of the museum and adjacent areas. They represent a total of 52 genera and 60 species.

Interestingly, the eye-catching bright colours of the walls of the museum seem to play an important role for the insect fauna of the area. Not only are numerous butterflies and moths being attracted to the site, but they also express curious behaviour. On various occasions, for example, a species of skipper butterfly was seen to show a clear preference for yellowish surfaces. In their turn, a number of butterfly predators, such as jumping spiders, are also frequenting the walls.

The article in the journal provides knowledge of the butterfly and moth fauna at the mainly vegetated study area, located on a narrow strip of water distant from the city of Panama.

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Original source:

Corro-Chang P (2017) Behavioural notes and attraction on Lepidoptera around the Gehry’s Biodiversity Museum (Causeway, Calzada de Amador, Panamá, República de Panamá). Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e11410. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e11410