Scientific Name: Tantilla albiceps
Species Authority: Barbour, 1925
Common Name(s):
English – Barbour's Centipede Snake
Assessment Information [top]
Red List Category & Criteria: Data Deficient ver 3.1
Year Published: 2013
Date Assessed: 2012-05-07
Assessor(s): Ibáñez, R. & Jaramillo, C.
Reviewer(s): Bowles, P.
Facilitator/Compiler(s): Bowles, P.
Justification:
Listed as Data Deficient on the basis that this species is known from a single historical specimen and has not been recorded for almost 90 years. If it survives on Barro Colorado Island it is likely to be well-protected. However it is not known whether it is or ever was more widespread.
Geographic Range [top]
Range Description: This snake is endemic to Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, within the Caribbean lowlands of Panama. It has been collected at an elevation of 60 meters (Jaramillo et al. 2010).
Countries:
Native:
Panama
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
Population [top]
Population: This species is known only from the holotype, which was described in 1925, although Barro Colorado is among the most well-surveyed biological research sites in the world.
Population Trend: Unknown
Habitat and Ecology [top]
Habitat and Ecology: This species occurs in lowland moist forest (Jaramillo et al. 2010).
Systems: Terrestrial
Use and Trade [top]
Use and Trade: This species is not utilized.
Threats [top]
Major Threat(s): Barro Colorado Island (BCI) is an artificial island created by the flooding of the area during the formation of the Panama Canal, and species now confined to the island may naturally have been more widespread. It is therefore possible that isolation represents a threat to this species. As BCI is a well-protected research site, no other threats are known.
Conservation Actions [top]
Conservation Actions: This species is known only from a historical specimen collected in Barro Colorado Natural Monument. Research is needed to attempt to rediscover this species, either in Barro Colorado or elsewhere, or to establish definitively whether it is extinct, as has been suggested is likely (L. Wilson pers. comm. 2012).
Citation: Ibáñez, R. & Jaramillo, C. 2013. Tantilla albiceps. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 July 2015.
Source:
www.iucnredlist.org/details/summary/203308/0
