Morfologia comparativa entre eunectes murinus (Wagler, 1830) e eunectes deschauenseei Dunn & Conant, 1936 (serpentes, boidae).

Abstract

The genus Eunectes (Wagler, 1830) has four species of viviparous snakes of semi-aquatic habit distributed throughout South America. The objective of this work is to morphologically compare the species Eunectes murinus and E. deschauenseei. We analyzed 45 specimens of E. murinus (26 females/19 males) and 16 E. deschauenseei (11 females/5 males) from the Herpetological Collection of the Emílio Goeldi Museum of Belém, Brazil. Seven meristic and 18 morphometric characters were analyzed. SYSTAT 10 was used for descriptive statistics. The design pattern and coloration were described from fixed specimens. The hemipennis were drawn and described. Eunectes murinus showed the following characters: dorsals with reduction, being 42-51/57-72/37-44; 243-274 ventral; 62-76 subcaudal; 14-18 supralabial; 19-24 infralabial; cloacal rostral length 626-2435 mm (n=26) in females and 586-2317 mm (n=19) in males; caudal length 105-465 mm (n=25) in females and 99-428 mm (n=19) in males; head greenish brown, with four dark bands; body and tail greenish brown, with paired oval spots on the vertebral region; lateral region of the body with small oval black spots, with clear centers; venter yellow, with two small black spots on each side of the ventral scales. Eunectes deschauenseei differs from E. murinus in that it has dorsals with posterior reduction, being 35-39/43-49/30-32; 222-233 ventral; 53-60 subcaudal; 12-15 supralabial; 16-18 infralabial; cloacal rostral length ranging 515-1540 mm (n=11) in females and 1120-1337 mm (n=5) in males; caudal length ranging 75-254 mm (n=11) in females and 202-297 mm (n=5) in males; head brown, with five dark bands; body and tail brown, with single oval spots on the vertebral region; lateral body region with irregular black spots; venter yellow, with two small black spots on each side of the ventral scales.