Vol. 87, No. 16, pp. 167-174 22 October 1974 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A NEW TRICOLOR LEPTOTYPHLOPS (REPTILIA: SERPENTES) FROM PERU By Braulio R. Orejas-Miranda and George R. Zug Division of Reptiles and Amphibians, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20560 Two Peruvian species of Leptotyphlops possess color pat-terns of red, yellowish white, and black. L. rubrolineatus (Werner, 1901:6) has a body pattern of alternating red and black longitudinal stripes; yellow pigment is confined to the rostrum, chin and throat, and tail. L. teaguei ( Orejas-Miranda, 1964:4) has a body pattern of red, black, and yellow longi-tudinal stripes. Black stripes predominate with a thin mid-dorsal black stripe flanked on each side by an equally thin black stripe. These three stripes lie on a red field bordered by dorsolateral black stripes and yellow lateral stripes; ventro-laterally and ventrally the body is black. Recently one of us (B.O-M.) discovered in the Museo de Historia Natural "Javi er Prado" (MHNJP) three Leptotyphlops specimens with a tri-color pattern similar to that of L. teaguei. Scutellation differ-ences indicate that these specimens represent a distinct species. Leptotyphlops tricolor, new species Holotype: MHNJP 0669, Peru: Ancash Department, Huaylas Province, Huaylas District: Yunca Pampa, (2700 m), collected by Acacio Ramos on 24 February 1966. Paratypes: MHNJP 0670 and USNM 195853, same data as holotype. Diagnosis: A Leptotyphlops of the tesselatus species group (Orejas-Miranda, 1964:4) characterized by broad contact between supraoculars and first pair of labials, differing from other members of the group except L. teaguei by its tricolor pattern of brick red, black, and cream longitudinal stripes, and differing from L. teaguei by absence of three narrow middorsal black stripes, presence of a cream colored mental region bisected by black stripe, and a higher number of dorsal scales (more than 300). 16— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 87, 1974 ( 167)
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