Caecilia pulchraserrana

Caecilia pulchraserrana is a species of gymnophionic amphibian in the family Caeciliidae, which can be found on the western slopes of the Eastern Ranges and is endemic to Yariguíes National Park, in Santander Department, Colombia.

It can be differentiated from other species of cecilia by its small size, with length varying from 195 to 232 millimeters, for having only incomplete ring-shaped primary grooves, with a number ranging from 100 to 104, smaller than the others, and for having parts of its body salmon colored.

The species was described by Alexander von Humboldt Institute researchers: Andrés Acosta-Galvis, Mauricio Torres and Paola Pulido-Santacruz, and the results were published by ZooKeys on October 30, 2019.

By the same methods, it was possible to certify the speciation of Caecilia pulchraserrana, considering that genetically the closest species, C. volcani, has only 58% compatibility with it, and because it has a combination of features that differs from the others, such as the arrangement of 100 to 104 incomplete rings on the back, not being large, measuring between 195 and 232 millimeters, having salmon colored lips and ventral margins of the jawbone, and the absence of secondary rings.

The holotype was found on February 25, 2018 in the La Belleza footpath, in the city of El Carmen de Chucurí, in Santander Department, at an altitude of 789 meters from sea level and it was an adult female.

[2] Currently, only two sites are known to harbor the species, both located on the western slopes of the Eastern Ranges, more precisely in the Yariguíes National Park, in the municipality of El Carmen de Chucurí, Colombia, whose altitudes are 731 and 789 meters above sea level.

View of a fixed individual from different angles.