2008 Abstract: Long-tailed Rattlesnake

A New Long-Tailed Rattlesnake (Viperidae) From Guerrero, Mexico

Jonathan A. Campbell and Oscar Flores-Villela

Herpetologica
Vol. 64, no. 2 (June 2008): pp. 246-257

Abstract: A distinctive new species of rattlesnake is described from the western versant of the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero, Mexico. This long-tailed rattlesnake cannot be confused with any other species of rattlesnake and is most similar to Crotalus stejnegeri and C. lannomi. The Guerrero species possesses a strikingly distinct color pattern and differs from all other rattlesnakes in aspects of lepidosis. Mexico continues to be the origin of newly discovered species that provide important insights into the evolution or ecology of particular groups. A few examples from recent decades include Exiliboa placata, a monotypic, relictual dwarf boa (Bogert, 1968), Rhadinophanes monticola, a monotypic, highland colubrid (Myers and Campbell, 1981), and Pseudoeurycea aquatica, the only aquatic bolitoglossine salamander (Wake and Campbell, 2001).