Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 607-608 (2020) (published online on 05 August 2020)

Defensive Behaviour of Chironius flavolineatus Jan, 1863 (Serpentes: Colubridae) in Northeastern Brazil

Wilmara Mascarenhas1,*, Cicero R. Oliveira2, Robson W. Ávila2, and Samuel C. Ribeiro1,3

Snakes have the most elaborate defence mechanisms the Universidad Regional do Cariri, accession number described for reptiles, mostly directed at visually oriented URCA-H 15.133), a species with typically arboreal animals (Greene, 1988, 1997). This type of behaviour habits (Hamdan and Fernandes, 2015), submerged in a has evolved to prevent them from being detected, perennial stream with a substrate of decaying leaf matter, wounded, or killed, especially by certain groups of where it hid after we approached in an apparent attempt animals (Edmunds, 1974; Maia-Carneiro et al., 2012). to escape. The snake remained under the substrate for 6 Snakes are therefore a good example for studying minutes, timed and videotaped using a digital camera diverse anti-predator behaviours (Greene, 1988). Many (Fig. 1). When it emerged, it noticed the presence of studies addressing defensive behaviour in snakes report observers and submerged again, remaining submerged different tactics, including glands that produce a strong for another 1 min 20 s. It then emerged a little further smell, head and tail exhibition, defensive strikes, cryptic away from where it entered the stream, and after the colouration, camouflage, and mimicry, among others, observer approached, it tried to escape on land through which may all be used by individuals of a given species the leaf litter, where it could be captured. or even by a single individual (Martins, 1996; Araujo, 1999; Cadle and Myers, 2003; Tozetti et al., 2009; Maia-Carneiro et al., 2012; Torres, 2012). In some species, behaviours related to aquatic environments, such as diving, swimming, and flotation, may constitute defensive strategies to escape from predators (Hare and Miller, 2009). We here report on one such instance in Boettger’s sipo, Chironius flavolineatus. On 20 December 2018, during an expedition to collect reptiles on the slopes of Chapada do Araripe, Crato Municipality, Ceará, Brazil (7.2566°S, 39.4686°W), we observed a Chironius flavolineatus (snout–vent length 518 mm; deposited in the herpetological collection of

1 Departamento de Química Biológica, Curso de Pós-Graduação em Bioprospecção Molecular, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Campus do Pimenta, Rua Cel. Antônio Luiz, 1161, Bairro do Pimenta, Crato, Ceará, 63105-000, Brazil. 2 Núcleo Regional de Ofiologia, Bloco 905, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Campus do PICI, Avenida Humberto Monte, s/n, Fortaleza, Ceará 60455-760, Brazil. 3 Instituto de Formação de Educadores, Universidade Federal do Cariri, Olegário Emídio de Araújo, Aldeota, Brejo Santo, Figure 1. Defensive behaviour of Chironius flavolineatus Ceará 63260-000, Brazil. (inside the red ellipse shows) in Chapada do Araripe, Crato * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Municipality, Ceará, Brazil. Photo by Samuel C. Ribeiro. 608 Wilmara Mascarenhas et al.

Diving as an escape behaviour has only rarely been eastern Brazilian Amazonia. Journal of Herpetology 51: 215– documented in terrestrial snakes. Members of the family 222. Boidae (Charles, 2007), the genus Nerodia (Scudder and Edmunds, M. (1974): Defense in Animals. A Survey of Anti- Predator Defences. Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom, Longman Burghardt, 1982), Erythrolamprus miliaris (Marques Group. and Sousa 1993), E. jaegeri (Santos et al., 2010), and Fernandes, D.S., Hamdan, B. (2014): A new species of Chironius the snake Liodytes rigida (Tumlison and Roberts, 2018) Fitzinger, 1826 from the state of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil are known to submerge as part of active foraging. (Serpentes: Colubridae). Zootaxa 3881(6): 563–575. Although this tactic is part of the natural biology of Greene, H.W. (1988): Anti-predator mechanisms in reptiles. In: marine and semi-aquatic snakes (Crowe-Riddell et al., Biology of the Reptilia, p. 1–152. Gans, C., Huey, R.B., Eds., 2019), either for escape or foraging, as shown by the New York, USA, Allan R. Liss. Greene, H.W. (1997): Snakes: the Evolution of Mystery in Nature. example of species such Laticauda colubrina (Shetty Berkeley, California, USA, University of California Press. and Shine, 2002), Hydrophis curtus (Lobo et al., 2005), Hamdan, B., Fernandes, D.S. (2015): Taxonomic revision of Aipysurus mosaicus, H. curtus, H. elegans, H. peronii, Chironius flavolineatus (Jan, 1863) with description of a new and H. zweifeli (Lillywhite et al., 2015), and Helicops species (Serpentes: Colubridae). Zootaxa 4012(1): 097–119. angulatus, H. hagmanni, and H. polylepis (De Carvalho Hare, K.M., Miller, K.A. (2009): What dives beneath: diving as a et al., 2017). This behaviour was also reported in measure of performance in lizards. Herpetologica 65: 227–236. Chironius diamantina, an arboreal species, which was Lillywhite, H.B., Heatwole, H., Sheehy, C.M., III. (2015): Dehydration and drinking behavior in true sea snakes (Elapidae: caught foraging near a river and dived in an attempt to Hydrophiinae: Hydrophiini). Journal of Zoology 296: 261–269. escape (Fernandes and Hamdan, 2014). This behaviour Lobo, A.S., Vasudevan, K., Pandav, B. (2005): Trophic ecology was similar to that observed in C. flavolineatus in the of Lapemis curtus (Hydrophiinae) along the western coast of present study, which suggests that this can be added India. Copeia 2005: 637–641. option in defence of this specie. This is the first record of Maia-Carneiro, T., Wachlevski, M., Rocha, C.F.D. (2012): What defensive diving behaviour in Chironius flavolineatus. to do to defend themselves: description of three defensive strategies displayed by a serpent Dipsas alternans (Fischer, 1885) (Serpentes, Dipsadidae). Biotemas 25: 207–210. Acknowledgments. We thank the Coordenação de Marques, O.A.V., Sousa, V.C. 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