Acta Herpetologica 4(2): 177-182, 2009 A new finding of Rhynchocalamus barani, Baran’s black-headed dwarf snake (Reptilia, Colubridae), in the Mediterranean region of Turkey widens its distribution range Aziz Avcı1, Nazan Üzüm1, Çetin Ilgaz2, Kurtuluş Olgun1 ¹ Adnan Menderes University, Science and Art Faculty, Department of Biology, Tr-09010, Aydın, Turkey. Corresponding author. E-mail: ntaskin@adu.edu.tr ² Dokuz Eylül University, Fauna and Flora Research and Application Center, 35160, Buca-İzmir, Turkey. Submitted on: 2009, 6th June; revised on 2009, 16st September; accepted on 2009, 25th September. Abstract. Rhynchocalamus barani Olgun, Avcı, Ilgaz, Üzüm and Yılmaz, 2007 is a small colubrid snake previously known only from the type locality, 34 km east of Dört-yol, Hatay Province from Mediterranean Region of Turkey. A second new locali- ty, Yayladağı, Hatay, Turkey, is reported here in the Mediterranean region of Turkey in this study. The new specimen corresponds fully in morphology, colouration and body scalation with specimens from the type locality. Keywords. Reptilia, Colubridae, Rhynchocalamus barani, distribution, Turkey. The genus Rhynchocalamus includes three snake species (R. arabicus Schmidt 1933, R. melanocephalus [Jan 1862] and R. barani Olgun, Avcı, Ilgaz, Üzüm and Yılmaz, 2007), two of which occur in Turkey: R. melanocephalus and R. barani (see Franzen and Bischoff, 1995; Baran and Atatür, 1998; Olgun et al., 2007; Avcı et al., 2008; Gruber, 2009). R. barani is an endemic snake to Anatolia, firstly described by Olgun et al. (2007) on the based on two specimens found 34 km east of Dörtyol, Hatay Province, Turkey. This newly described snake species, R. barani, differs from other Rhynchocalamus species in having a greater number of dorsalia, fewer ventralia, only one upper labial in contact with the eye and a characteristic color-pattern of the body (Olgun et al., 2007; Gruber, 2009). During an expedition in 2009 to the Mediterranean region of Turkey, one specimen of R. barani was collected from Yayladağı, Hatay, Turkey (35° 53’ 338” N; 36° 04’ 396’ ’E) on 22 May 2009 by C. Salih Demirci at an elevation of approximately 550 m. The specimen is cur- rently deposited in the Zoology Laboratory of the Department of Biology at the Science and Arts Faculty, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey. It will later be incorporated into the col- lection of the Zoology Department, Ege University, Turkey (ZDEU 36/2009). The specimen was fixed in 96% ethanol then preserved in 70% ethanol as described in Başoğlu and Baran (1980). The color and pattern characteristics were recorded while the specimen was still 178 A. Avcı et alii alive. Additionally color slides of living animals were utilized in the study. The ventral plates were counted using the Dowling (1951) system. The present paper describes the morphol- ogy, color-pattern and body scalation of the single R. barani specimen collected at Yayladağı, Hatay (Fig. 1) and compares it with the individuals described by Olgun et al. (2007). The specimen was found under stones on a moist, stony slope with sparse cover of various grasses. The collection area was characterized mainly by tree Pinus brutia. The specimen was collected at day time (16:00) at an air temperature of 16 °C. The sympatric herpetofauna comprised only Salamandra infraimmaculata Martens, 1885. The Yayladağ specimen is an adult female with 263.80 and 98.48 mm snout-vent length and tail length, respectively. The head is small, not distinct from the neck, with an oblique shape at the anterior side. The head scales between the rostral and posterior mar- gin of the parietal area are not keeled like in temporals. The rostrum is curved towards the top of the head and intrudes between the internasals; it is bordered by two upper labials, two nasals and two internasals. The nostrils are situated on the contact zone of nasals and loreals on each side. The loreals are in contact with the 1st upper labials at either side. The eyes are small with circular pupils. The 3rd upper labials are in contact with the eyes on each side. Four pairs of lower labials touch the anterior chin shields at the left and right side. The scalation characters are summarized and compared with those of the Dörtyol specimens (Olgun et al., 2007) in Table 1. The Yayladağ specimen has remarkable differ- ences in terms of temporals and ventrals. It has more temporals and fewer ventrals com- pared to values that was given in Olgun et al. (2007). For general aspect, the color-pattern and head scalation of the new specimen are shown in Fig. 2A-D. The basic color of the head (from tip of the rostral to posterior mar- Fig. 1. Distribution of Rhynchocalamus barani in Turkey, showing the known distribution according to lit- erature, with star for the new locality. 1: 34 km E of Dörtyol, Hatay (Olgun et al., 2007), 2: Yayladağ, Hatay. 179New finding of Rhynchocalamus barani Ta bl e 1. P ho lid os is c ha ra ct er s an d m or ph ol og ic al m ea su re m en ts o f th e th re e sp ec im en s of R hy nc ho ca la m us b ar an i O lg un e t al , 2 00 7 kn ow n fr om T ur ke y. Z D EU – Z oo lo gy D ep ar tm en t o f E ge U ni ve rs ity . [ Se x, P O – P re oc ul ar , L O – L or ea ls , P T O – P os to cu la rs , T – T em po ra ls , P T – P os te m po ra ls , U L - U pp er la bi - al s, L L - Lo w er la bi al s, G SI - G ul ar s ca le s in a r ow b et w ee n po st er io r in fr am ax ill ar s, D ST - D or sa ls p lu s te m po ra ls s ca le s su rr ou nd in g th e po st er io r m ar gi n of th e pa ri et al s, V – V en tr al s, D SM - D or sa l s ca le r ow s at m id -b od y, D SN - D or sa l s ca le r ow s on n ec k on e he ad -l en gt h be hi nd h ea d, D SA - D or sa l s ca le r ow s on e he ad -l en gt h an te ri or to a na l, SC - Su bc au da ls , R H - R os tr al h ei gh t, RW - R os tr al w id th , I N - I nt er -n os tr il di st an ce , D E - D ia m et er o f e ye s, S W - S up ra oc - ul ar s w id th , F W - F ro nt al w id th , F L - Fr on ta l l en gt h, A IL - A nt er io r in fr am ax ill ar le ng th , P IL - P os te ri or in fr am ax ill ar le ng th , I N S - In te r- na sa l t ri an gu la r (d ) or t ra pe zo id s ha pe d (t ), SL I/ SL PF - S ut ur e le ng th o f i nt er na sa l m uc h sh or te r (- -) , s ho rt er ( -) , e qu al ( =) o r lo ng er ( +) t ha n pr ef ro nt al s ut ur e, P L/ R FL - P ar ie ta ls sh or te r (t ), eq ua l ( n ) or lo ng er ( ¤ ) th an t he d is ta nc e fr om p os te ri or t ip o f r os tr al to t he p os te ri or t ip o f f ro nt al , P LL A - P ai rs o f l ow er la bi al s in c on ta ct w ith an te ri or c hi n sh ie ld s, P L - Pi le us le ng th , P W - P ile us w id th , H H - H ea d he ig ht , S V L - Sn ou t- ve nt le ng th , T L - Ta il le ng th ( A ll m ea su re m en ts a re in m m )] . Z D EU .1 22 /2 00 6- 1 (H ol ot yp e) Z D EU .1 22 /2 00 6- 2 (P ar at yp e) Z D EU .3 6/ 20 09 Z D EU .1 22 /2 00 6- 1 (H ol ot yp e) Z D EU .1 22 /2 00 6- 2 (P ar at yp e) Z D EU .3 6/ 20 09 Se x Fe m al e M al e M al e IN 3. 16 3. 04 3. 14 PO 1/ 1 1/ 1 1/ 1 D E 1. 78 1. 84 1. 74 LO 1/ 2 A bs en t 1/ 1 SW 1. 50 1. 20 1. 34 PT O 2/ 2 2/ 2 2/ 2 FW 2. 60 2. 52 2. 62 T 1/ 1 1/ 1 2/ 3 FL 3. 10 3. 10 3. 12 PT 2/ 2 2/ 2 2/ 2 A IL 2. 42 2. 64 2. 62 U L 5/ 5 5/ 5 5/ 5 PI L 1. 54 2. 02 2. 00 LL 7/ 8 7/ 7 7/ 8 IN S t t t G SI 1 2 2 SL I/ SL PF + (= ) (= ) D ST 13 11 12 PL /R FL t ( 3. 54 -4 .6 4) t ( 3. 60 -4 .4 2) t ( 3. 50 -4 .5 2) V 17 3 16 3 15 6 PL LA 3/ 4 3/ 3 3/ 3 D SM 17 17 17 PL 9. 00 8. 22 8. 72 D SN 17 17 17 PW 4. 48 4. 30 4. 44 D SA 17 17 17 H H 4. 04 3. 70 3. 80 SC 65 /6 5+ 1 74 /7 4+ 1 68 /6 8+ 1 SV L 31 2. 98 25 2. 20 26 3. 80 R H 2. 06 1. 64 1. 66 T L 89 .6 0 90 .0 4 98 .4 8 RW 2. 66 2. 48 2. 46 180 A. Avcı et alii gin of the parietals) is ash-gray. This basic color extends to the first upper labial plate at the flanks of the head. A narrow black blotch extends from the lower part of the eyes up to the contact of the 3rd and 4th upper labials. The 2nd, 3/4 of 3rd, 4/5 of 4th and 2/3 of 5th upper labials are white. Other lower labials are also white except for the last lower labial which is black. The narrow black neck band extends along the upper part of the head, from the margin of the parietals to the top of the posterior margin of the temporals; in the gular region of the head the band is in contact with dorsals over a width of six scales. This band does not touch ventrals at the lower part of the head. The length of the head Fig. 2. General and head aspects of Rhynchocalamus barani specimen captured from Yayladağ, Hatay, Tur- key (ZDEU. 36/2009) (A-D). 181New finding of Rhynchocalamus barani patterns (from the tip of the rostrum), proportional to snout-vent length is 4.8 mm. Tem- porals are mostly white (ca. 75%) or otherwise black. The basic color of the dorsum is reddish brown without spots. The lower part of the head and ventral, separated by the black head band, are white without spots, except the connection site of the anterior and posterior inframaxillars. There is a small black spot at this site. The lower part of the tail is white, including the tail tip. The new locality record extends the known range of the species about 110 km to the southwest as measured from the type locality. R. barani has been known only from the type locality up to now (Olgun et al., 2007). However, the new locality (Yayladağ) indi- cates a much wider distribution of the species within the Mediterranean region of Turkey and possibly northwestern Syria. The Anatolian diagonal is an important barrier affecting the distribution of reptilian species such as Apathya cappadocica (Wertner 1902), Anatololacerta danfordi (Günther 1876) and Eirenis Jan 1863 species (Nilson et al., 1990; Sindaco et al., 2000). The Anato- lian diagonal is a mountain range that extends from the region of Bayburt-Gümüşhane and the province of Erzurum in the northeast towards the provinces of Kayseri and Kahramanmaraş (Anti-Taurus) in the southwest. The range splits here and one branch continues further southwest towards Bolkar Mountain in the Cilician Taurus. The other runs more southwards through the province Hatay towards the direction of the Lebanon Mountains (Nilson et al., 1990). Amanos Mountain is situated southwards of the Anato- lian diagonal and its altitudinal range extends from 1500 to 2600 m. We hypothesise that Amanos Mountain could be a barrier that prevents the extension of the distribution of R. barani to the West Anatolia. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work forms part of a Project (Project No. TBAG-108T162) supported by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey). We are most grateful to Salih Demirci for obtaining specimen. We thank to Dr. Suat Ateşlier, from Adnan Menderes University for help while taking the head photos. We are also grateful to M. Stackhowitsch from Vienna University, for Eng- lish corrections on an earlier manuscript version. The authors wish to acknowledge the use of Map- tool program for analysis and graphics in this paper. Maptool is a product of Seaturtle.org (informa- tion is available at www.seaturtle.org). REFERENCES Avcı, A., Dinçaslan, Y.E., Ilgaz, Ç., Üzüm, N. (2008): Contributions to the distribution and morphology of Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus melanocephalus (Jan 1862) (Reptil- ia, Colubridae) in Turkey. North-Western J. Zool. 4: 161-166. Baran, İ., Atatür, M.K. (1998): Turkish Herpetofauna (Amphibians & Reptiles). 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