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A Case of Albinism in Amerotyphlops Brongersmianus (Vanzolini, 1976) (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) from Southern Bahia, Northeaestern Brazil

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A Case of Albinism in Amerotyphlops Brongersmianus (Vanzolini, 1976) (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) from Southern Bahia, Northeaestern Brazil Herpetology Notes, volume 10: 131-132 (2017) (published online on 10 March 2017) A case of albinism in Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Vanzolini, 1976) (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) from southern Bahia, northeaestern Brazil Caio Vinícius de Mira-Mendes1,*, Celso Henrique Varela Rios2, Renato Augusto Martins2, Tadeu Medeiros1, Mirco Solé1 and Antônio Jorge Suzart Argôlo1 Albinism is defined as a congenital decrease or Bahia (16.968567°S; 39.567365°W; datum WGS84). absence of melanin in the skin, mucosa, and eyes, The specimen was photographed, collected and caused by a homozygosis in a recessive mendelian gene deposited in the herpetological collection of Museu (Bechtel, 1995; Griffiths et al., 1998). While albinism de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), is widely spread in several pet snake lineages (Saenko state of São Paulo, Brazil, under the catalogue number et al., 2015), reports of albino snakes from the wild are MZUSP 22790. The snake had a snout-vent length of scattered in the literature (e.g., Sazima and Di-Bernardo, 229 mm and tail length of 4 mm. 1991; Duarte et al., 2005; Krecsák, 2008; Silva et al., Cases of coloration disorder are very rare in 2010, Abegg et al., 2015). Although the exact incidence scolecophidian snakes. Currently, only four reports are of albinism in snakes is not known, estimates suggest known in the literature: Epictia munoai, Amerotyphlops orders of 1:10,000 to 1:30,000 in the general population reticulatus and Grypotyphlops acutus (Nicéforo-Maria, (Bechtel, 1995). Herein, we report a case of total 1958; Orejas-Miranda, 1972; Nivalkar et al., 2012, albinism in Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Vanzolini, respectively) that represent albinism cases, and one case 1972), from northeastern Brazil. The Brongersma’s of piebaldism in Amerotyphlops vermicularis (Kornilios, Worm Snake is one of the larger species within the 2014). Several explanations are present in the literature family Typhlopidae, with a maximum total length of 325 about the disadvantage conferred by the color pattern of mm. It presents a brown color pattern, with dorsal scales coloured brown, yellowish brown or reddish brown on a lighter background (Dixon and Hendricks, 1979). A. brongersmianus is a fossorial snake widely distributed in South America, found in a diversity of habitats, including forest, deforested areas and agricultural lands (Arruda et al.. 2011; Uetz and Hallermann, 2016). On 05 August 2015 at 20:00h we found a total albino Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Figure 1) specimen captured by a pitfall trap unit installed in an Atlantic Forest fragment located at municipality of Itamarajú, 1 Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, km 16, 45662-900 Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil. 2 Probiota Consultoria Ambiental Ltda, Rua Perucaia, nº 291, Bairro Butantan, CEP 05548-070, São Paulo, São Paulo, Figure 1. Albino Amerotyphlops brongersmianus found in Brazil. southern Bahia, northeaestern Brazil. Photo by Renato A. * Corresponding author e--mail: caio�vina�yahoo.com.br Martins. 132 Noah Carl & Jim Darlington albino and leucistic animals, such as higher predation Krecsák, L. (2008): Albinism and leucism among European vulnerability to visually oriented predators (Sazima Viperina: a review. Russian Journal of Herpetology 15: 97–102. and Di-Bernardo, 1991), visual problems (Creel et al., Nicéfero-Maria, Hno. (1958): Sección Herpetologia. Reptilia Serpentes. Dos casos de albinismo en los ofidios de Colombia. 1990), and lower protection from solar radiation and Boletin del Instituto de La Salle 45: 1–2. inability to thermoregulate (Bechtel, 1978; Spadola Nivalkar, A., Patil, V., Patil, M., Shinde, V. (2012): Report of an and Di Toro, 2007), which altogether may lead to low albino beaked worm-snake Gryptotyphlops acutus (Duméril and survival rates. However, Kornilios (2014) suggested that Bibron, 1844). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society these explanations may not be valid for scolecophidians 109: 141–142. snakes, because these species present fossorial habits Orejas-Miranda, B. (1972): Observaciones sobre un caso de and may be less susceptible than other snakes to the albinismo de Leptotyphlops munoai. Boletín de la Sociedad Zoológica del Uruguay 2: 36. costs caused by albinism. The literature available on A. Saenko S.V., Lamichhaney, S., Barrio, A.M., Rafati, N., Andersson, brongersmianus as prey corroborates these arguments, L., Milinkovitch, M.C. (2015): Amelanism in the corn snake is including reports of predation of this species by non- associated with the insertion of an LTR-retrotransposon in the visually oriented predators, such as snakes of the genus OCA2 gene. Scientific Reports 5: 17118 Micrurus (Ávila et al., 2010). Sazima, I., Di-Bernado, M. (1991): Albinismo em serpents neotropicais. Memórias Do Instituto Butantan 53: 167–173. Acknowledgements. We thank Euvaldo Marciano-Jr and Silva, F.A., Assis, C.L., Quintela, F.M. (2010): Albinism in a Vinicius Caldart for comments on the manuscript. Specimens Liophis miliaris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) were collected under the permit 547/2015 issued by the Instituto from Minas Gerais State, southern Brazil. Herpetology Notes Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis 3: 171–172. – IBAMA. C.V.M.M. thanks Fernanda Tonolli for her patience, Spadola, F., Di Toro, F. (2007): Complete albinism in a Podarcis affection and eternal loving support. muralis newborn. Acta Herpetologica 2: 49–51 Uetz, P., Hallermann, J. (2016): Amerotyphlops brongersmianus (Vanzolini, 1976). The Reptile Database. Available at: http:// References www.reptile-database.org. Accessed on 2 February 2017. Ávila, W.R, Kawashita-Ribeiro, R.A., Ferreira, V.L., Strüssmann, Vanzolini, P. E. (1976): Typhlops brongersmai spec. nov. from the C. (2010): Natural history of the coral snake Micrurus coast of Bahia, Brasil (Serpentes, Typhlopidae). Zoologische pyrrhocryptus Cope 1892 (Elapidae) from semideciduous Mededelingen, Leiden, 47: 27–29. forests of western Brazil. Sout American Journal of Herpetology 5: 97–101. Abegg, A.D., Entiauspe Neto, O.M., Lema, T. (2015): First record of albinism in the Elapomorphini tribe (Serpentes: Dipsadidae). Herpetology Notes 8: 503–505. Arruda, M.P., Almeida, C.H.L.N., Rolim, D.C., Maffei, F. (2011): First record in midwestern region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil of Typhlops brongersmianus Vanzolini, 1976 (Squamata: Typhlopidae). Check List 7: 571–573. Bechtel, H.B. (1978): Color and pattern in snakes (Reptilia, Serpentes). Journal of Herpetology 12: 521–532. Bechtel, H.B. (1995): Reptile and amphibian variants: colors, patterns and scales. Malabar, F.L., Krieger Publishing. Creel, D.J., Summers, C.G., King, R.A. (1990): Visual anomalies associated with albinism. Ophthalmic Paediatrics and Genetics 11: 193–200. Dixon, J.R., Hendricks, F.S. (1979): The wormsnakes (Family Typhlopidae) of the Neotropics, exclusive of the Antilles. Zoologische Verhandelingen 173: 1–39. Duarte, M.R., Franco, F.L., Oliveira, A.L. (2005): New records of albinism in neotropical snakes. Memórias do Instuto Butantan 61: 66. Griffiths, A.J.F., Miller, J.H., Suzuki, D.T., Lewontin, R.C., Gelbart, W.M. (1998): Introdução à Genética. 6th Edition. Rio de Janeiro, Guanabara-Koogan. Kornilios, P. (2014): First report of piebaldism in scolecophidians: Accepted by Vinicius Caldart a case of Typhlops vermicularis (Squamata: Typhlopidae). Herpetology Notes 7: 401–403..
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