PROCEEDINGS OF THE Marine Bioiogical Laboratory LI BN AH Y JAN 2 7 1965 WOODS HOLE, MASS. CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOURTH SERIES Vol. XXXI, No. 23, pp. 613-630, 12 figs. January 15, 1965 On Amphisbaena heathi Schmidt and A. carvalhoiy new species, small forms from the northeast of Brazil (Amphisbaenia: Reptilia)^ by Carl Cans Department of Biology State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, New York 14214 Review of the materials of South American amphisbaenids has repeat-edly emphasized the scattered nature of cur knowledge of these animals. The available samples scarcely permit the beginning of zoogeographical study: not even the ranges of many species can thus far be plotted with any degree of certainty. Contributing to this is wiiat may be an interesting tendency of certain groups to speciate on even relatively small mountain ranges. Examples are Amphishaena mufioai Klappenbach (1961) restricted to a series of rela-tively low mountains scattered through the lowlands of eastern Uruguay, and Amphishaena vanzolinii (ians (19631)) thus far known from only a single isolated plateau in southern British Uuiana. These two species belong with Amphisbaena mitchelli Proctor and A. slevini Schmidt (Gans, 1963a) among the smallest South American amphisbaenids. It is thus not sur-])rising to find that the Serra do Acahy in the State of Pernambuco appears to be inhabited by yet a third of these small montane forms. This species 1. Notes on amphisbaenids 16. [613]
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