SHORT COMUNICATION
UROTHECA DECIPIENS (SERPENTES: COLUBRIDAE): FIRST RECORD FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF RISARALDA, COLOMBIA^*

Héctor Fabio Arias-Monsalve¹ & Julián Andrés Rojas-Morales²

* FR: 4-III-2012. FA: 20-IX-2012.
¹ Associate researcher of the División de Historia Natural, Centro de Museos, Universidad de Caldas. hectorbta@gmail.com.
² Associate researcher of the División de Historia Natural, Centro de Museos, Universidad de Caldas. Julian.herpetologia@gmail.com. Current address: Programa de Postgraduación en Ecología Tropical, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Ecológicas (ICAE), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela

Urotheca decipiens (GÜNTHER, 1983), is a terrestrial dark brown snake distributed from Honduras to Colombia, inhabiting lowlands and highlands forest from 0-2740 m of elevation (MYERS, 1974; PÉREZ-SANTOS & MORENO, 1988; MCCRANIE, 2011). On 12 and 28 November 2008, three specimens of U. decipens (Fig. 1, 2, Table 1) were founded in La Suiza village (4.730605° N 75.581716° W; WGS 84), municipality of Pereira, department of Risaralda, Colombia. All specimens were collected by HFAM and housed in the herpetological collection of the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad de Caldas (MHN-UC). Specimens MHN-UC 0123 and 0134, were found dead by run over on the dirt road between La Suiza and La Florida villages. Specimen MHN-UC 0133 was observed on 28 November crossing this road at 18:30 h. All specimens had incomplete tails. This is the first record of U. decipens for the department of Risaralda, filling a gap between the Colombian northernmost locality in Medellín, Colombia, 2740 m of elevation (MYERS, 1974), and the closest known locality at the municipality of Filandia, department of Quindío (QUINTERO-ÁNGEL et al., 2012).With this record (the fifth for Colombia), is confirmed the continuous distribution of U. decipiens in the Central Andes of this country, specifically in the medium Cauca river valley, where inhabits sub Andean and Andean forests between 1600-2740 m of elevation (MYERS, 1974; CASTRO-HERRERA & VARGAS-SALINAS, 2007). Moreover, the locality of this record is adjacent to the "Santuario de Flora y Fauna Otún Quimbaya", which indicates that U. decipiens could be founded in that protected area. The only known previous record of U. decipiens in a Colombian protected area, was made by CASTRO-HERRERA & VARGAS-SALINAS (2007) for the "Reserva Forestal Bosque de Yotoco", in the department of Valle del Cauca.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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