Amphisbaena mertensii Strauch, 1881

Merten’s Amphisbaenid,

Amphisbaena mertensii Strauch, 1881

A deceased specimen was photographed on 27 March 2024 at Compañía   GoogleMaps Boquerón, Caazapá department (26°14’39’’S 56°15’10’’W) by Luz Benítez   GoogleMaps ( Fig. 8 View Fig ), representing the first departmental record. The   GoogleMaps specimen could be confidently identified as this species based on the high number of tail rings (>25), greater than any other Paraguayan Amphisbaenid   GoogleMaps , in combination with the pigmentation being restricted to the anterior part of the scales and the number of body rings being within the range 220-250 (Vanzolini, 2002; Corrêa and Meneses, 2020). This   GoogleMaps is a widespread amphisbaenid in the Oriental region   GoogleMaps of Paraguay and has been previously reported from Alto Paraná, Amambay, Caaguazú, Canindeyú, Central, Guairá, Itapúa and San Pedro departments ( Cabral and Weiler, 2014; Cacciali et al., 2016b; Smith et al., 2016; Goosen and Martínez, 2021). It is considered to be “Least Concern” in Paraguay ( Martínez et al., 2020c).