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Amphisbaena bahiana was described by Vanzolini in 1964 on the basis of a single specimen from Villa Nova municipality (now Senhor do Bonfim), Bahia state, Brazil. The holotype was obtained approximately 100 years ago, and only three additional specimens have been mentioned in the literature subsequently. We report two additional specimens of A. bahiana collected recently at Antonio Goncalves, Bahia, Brazil near the type locality in the northern Espinhaco Range. On the basis of this new material, we provide data on morphological variation, natural history, and phylogeny. Amphisbaena bahiana was recovered as the sister species of A. uroxena, also from the Espinhaco Range.

Since 1965, Amphisbaena leucocephala Peters, 1878 has been considered species inquirenda due to overlap in meristic data between it and A. pretrei and the the low number of specimens available for analysis. Herein, based on recently collected specimens, we review its taxonomic status through morphological and genetic data. Both analyses recovered A. leucocephala as a distinct species, sister to, but widely divergent from, A. pretrei. It is characterized by having 10–13 precloacal pores, 231–246 body annuli, 25–29 caudal annuli, autotomy site at the 6th–8th caudal annulus, 17–22 dorsal, and 20–23 ventral segments at midbody.

Recent efforts to improve sampling of Brazilian biodiversity have yielded a number of undescribed species of amphisbaenids. Herein, we describe a new species of small, two-pored Amphisbaena from western Brazilian Amazonia. The new species can be distinguished from all congeners by the combination of the following characters: two precloacal pores arranged in a continuous series; snout rounded in lateral and dorsal views; tip of tail rounded; 233–250 body annuli; 20–24 caudal annuli; autotomy sites on caudal annuli 6–9; 10 dorsal and 12–14 ventral segments per annulus at midbody; absence of postmalars; suture between frontals slightly smaller than parietal and nasal sutures; and tail short relative to body length (tail length/body length = 0.10). The new species inhabits the rain forest and small patches of savanna vegetation within the Amazon Forest. A Bayesian analysis based on two mitochondrial (16S and ND2) and three nuclear (cmos, BNDF and RAG1) markers recovered the new species as sister to ...

We present new records of Amphisbaena metallurga (the first outside the type locality) and A. sanctaeritae (previously known only for the holotype), extending their known geographic ranges and improving their morphological descriptions. Additionally, we report for the first time the presence of A. hiata in Brazil. These new findings give continuity to a series of recent advances in the knowledge on biodiversity of Brazilian amphisbaenians. The new specimens are housed in regional collections, reinforcing the importance of such institutions for science.

Two new species of Amphisbaena are described from Bahia, one from Piata municipality with two precloacal pores, 232 body annuli, 27 caudal annuli, autotomic site at the 7th caudal annulus, and 16 dorsal and 18 ventral segments per annuli at midbody, and the other from Vitoria da Conquista with four precloacal pores, 208 body annuli, 25 caudal annuli, autotomic site at the 10th caudal annulus, and 14 dorsal and 16 ventral segments. The species from Vitoria da Conquista municipality is morphologically more similar to A. mensae than the new species from Piata. Despite their morphological differences, phylogenetic analysis of molecular data revealed that the new species are closely related, with the previously described species recovered in distinct clades.

In this study, we provide new morphological data, update geographic distribution, and discuss some issues of conservation of Amphisbaena littoralis, a poorly known species of northeastern Brazil. Meristic characters and patterns of head scalation match the published species diagnosis, but we observed some deviations from the type series. Thus, on the basis of the type series (n = 13) and newly examined material (n = 12), we propose the following redefinitions in some diagnostic characters of A. littoralis: snout–vent length 143–278 mm; tail length 19.3–70 mm; body annuli 251–270; tail annuli 29–34; dorsal and ventral segments of midbody annulus 19–22 and 20–24, respectively; precloacal pores 5–6 (usually 6); and supralabials 3–4 (usually 4). The new records are from eight localities in six municipalities along the coast of Rio Grande do Norte state, extending the known geographic distribution of A. littoralis ca. 172 km south from the type locality. On the basis of the minimum convex polygon method, we estimated the extent of occurrence of the species to be around 5,448 km2.