New Bush Viper (Atheris) from Bioko Island (Gulf of Guinea)
A new species of Atheris (A. hetfieldi ) has described from the Bioko Island by Ceríaco et al. (2020). This is the second Bush Viper known the the island and is currently the only endemic snake to the island (although this may change as more studies are done).
A specimen of A. hetfieldi was collected way back by Leonardo Fea in 1901-1902 but was not described. Another specimen of this species was collected 1998, and both were used in the current description where it is morphologically distinct from other Atheris species. The paper also updates the dichotomous key for the genus (Spawls & Branch 2020) .
Atheris hetfieldi differs from the A. squamigera (also present on the island), by the following characters:
"four suprarostrals (usually three in A. squamigera, see Fig. 4), three scales between the eye and the nasal (two in A. squamigera), and an higher number of interrictals (19–20 in Atheris hetfieldi sp. nov. versus 14 to 16 in A. squamigera); "
The snake is named in honour of James Hetfield from the heavy metal band Metallica.
Read the full article here:
Ceríaco, L.M., Marques, M.P. and Bauer, A.M., 2020. The Bush Vipers, genus Atheris Cope, 1862 (Squamata: Viperidae) of Bioko Island, Gulf of Guinea, with the description of a new species. Zootaxa 4838 (4): pp. 581-593.
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