Yannis Schöneberg‡§, Gunther Köhler§Corresponding author: Yannis Schöneberg ( yannis.schoeneberg@gmx.de ) © Yannis Schöneberg, Gunther Köhler. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Schöneberg Y, Köhler G (2021) Distribution and identification of the species in the genus Helicops Wagler, 1830 (Serpentes, Colubridae, Xenodontinae). ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e67869 |  |
The aquatic snakes of the genus Helicops are widely distributed throughout northern South America but understudied concerning many aspects, including morphological traits and distribution. The most recent publication that provided an identification key to all species of Helicops is more than 50 years old. The key is of limited value today since it included taxa no longer recognized and lacks 8 of the 19 species currently recognized. There never was a publication trying to summarize the distribution information of all species of Helicops. Most of the knowledge on these species is distributed over many small publications, like observation notes.
Here we present point distribution maps, an identification key and comments on identification for all species in this genus based on the results of a comprehensive literature review of over 300 scientific publications and own examinations. Our examinations comprise 190 specimens of 10 of the 19 currently recognized species and one Helicops sp. Furthermore, we report range extensions for the species H. angulatus, H. danieli, H. infrataeniatus, H. leopardinus, H. pastazae and H. polylepis.