The genus Bothrops Wagler, 1824, comprises 45
species, nine of which (B. asper, B. atrox, B. ayerbei,
B. bilineatus, B. brazili, B. pulchra, B. punctatus, B.
taeniatus, B. venezuelensis) occur in Colombia (Uetz
et al., 2020). Bothrops punctatus (García, 1896) is
easily distinguishable from its congeners in Colombia
by presenting a pale-coloured, distally prehensile tail
in adults (García, 1896; Campbell and Lamar, 2004;
Fenwick et al., 2009), which seems to be related to its
semi-arboreal existence (Campbell and Lamar, 2004).
In addition, B. punctatus can be distinguished from B.
asper, which is found in sympatry in some regions (e.g.,
Vargas-Salinas and Bolaños-Lizalda, 1999), by having
rounded dorsal spots and an ornate pattern on the top
of the head. Bothrops punctatus is distributed in the
biogeographic provinces of Chocó-Darién, Magdalena,
and Western Ecuador (sensu Morrone, 2014), from
southeastern Panama (Darién Gap) through Colombia
to northwestern Ecuador (Pérez-Santos and Moreno,
1988; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Uetz et al., 2020). In
Colombia, it is distributed along the Pacifc Coast and
in both the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera
Central, in the departments of Antioquia, Cauca, Chocó,
and Valle del Cauca, occurring in humid, very humid,
and rainforests of tropical, pre-montane, and montane
regions, and in pasturelands from elevations of 9–2300
m (Pérez-Santos and Moreno, 1988; Vargas-Salinas and
Bolaños-Lizalda, 1999; Campbell and Lamar, 2004;
Daza-Rojas et al., 2005; Arteaga et al., 2013; Ospina-
Larrea, 2017; Fig. 1, Appendix 1).
During a herpetological survey in the Parque Nacional
Natural Selva de Florencia (hereafter PNNSF), Samaná
Municipality, Caldas Department, Colombia (Fig. 1),
we recorded four juvenile B. punctatus on the bank of
San Antonio Stream in Vereda San Lucas (5.4981°N,
75.0522°W, elevation 1216 m; datum WGS84). One
individual (snout–vent length 299 mm; tail length 59
mm; Fig. 2A) was collected on the ground near the
stream on 22 April 2018 at 15:56 h. The specimen
was deposited in the reptile collection of the Museo
de Historia Natural Universidad de Caldas (MHN-
UCa) under accession number MHN-UCa 0327. The
other three individuals were recorded on 23 April 2018
between 19:00 and 19:40 h along the same stream
where the individual collected the previous night was
observed. These individuals were observed on rocks
(Fig. 2B) or fallen tree branches. The observations in the
PNNSF constitute the frst record of this species from
Caldas Department, extending the species’ geographic
range in Colombia southwards along the eastern versant
of the Cordillera Central in the Magdalena River Valley,
specifcally by ca. 60 km to the southwest of the nearest
previous record in San Luis Municipality, Antioquia
Department (6.0333°N, 74.9833°W; Daza-Rojas et al.,
2005). In the PNNSF, B. punctatus is sympatric with B.
asper and Bothriechis schlegelii.
Bothrops punctatus is mainly distributed in the Chocó-
Darién biogeographic province (Campbell and Lamar,
2004; Daza-Rojas et al., 2005; Ospina-Larrea, 2017), and
distributions spanning Chocó-Darién and Magdalena
biogeographic province have also been observed in other
reptile species, including Diploglossus monotropis,
Imantodes inornatus, Loxopholis southi, and Micrurus
dumerilii (Gutiérrez-Cárdenas and Arredondo-Salgar,
2007; Díaz-Ayala et al., 2015, 2018; Rojas-Morales
et al., 2016). The geographic distribution pattern of B.
punctatus, as well as that of the other species, shows a
faunal affnity between these two regions, as discussed
by Hernández-Camacho et al. (1992). Our record for B.
punctatus extends further south than previously known
in the mid-Magdalena River basin (Daza-Rojas et al.,
Herpetology Notes, volume 14: 1127-1131 (2021) (published online on 20 August 2021)
First record of the Spotted Lancehead, Bothrops punctatus
(García, 1896), from the Department of Caldas, Colombia
Jhoana A. Santana-Londoño
1,*
, Juan P. Moncada-Vélez
1
, Juan C. Gallego-Ramírez
1
,
Viviana A. Ramírez-Castaño
2
, and Paul D.A. Gutiérrez-Cárdenas
1
1
Grupo de Ecología y Diversidad de Anfbios y Reptiles,
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de
Caldas, Calle 65 #26-10, A.A. 275, Manizales, Colombia.
2
Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Recursos
Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales,
Universidad de Caldas, Calle 65 #26-10, A.A. 275,
Manizales, Colombia.
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: jsantanalondono@gmail.com
© 2021 by Herpetology Notes. Open Access by CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.