First Records of the Snake Coniophanes Lateritius Cope, 1862 (Squamata: Dipsadidae) from Guerrero, Mexico with Notes on Its Natural History

Herpetology Notes, volume 11: 651-653 (2018) (published online on 24 August 2018)

First records of the snake Coniophanes lateritius Cope, 1862 (Squamata: Dipsadidae) from Guerrero, Mexico with notes on its natural history

Ricardo Palacios-Aguilar1,2,*, Rufino Santos-Bibiano2,3, Eric N. Smith4, and Jonathan A. Campbell4

Coniophanes lateritius Cope, 1862 is a medium- dorsal scale rows, smooth throughout; 149 ventrals sized terrestrial snake endemic to Mexico that has been and 96 subcaudals. This locality extends the previous reported from the states of Sonora (Lara-Resendiz et al., known distribution 268 km SE from the nearest reported 2016), Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima (Ponce-Campos locality on a road from Coahuayana to Palos Marías, & Smith, 2001), and Michoacán (Suazo-Ortuño et al., Michoacán (Suazo-Ortuño et al., 2014). 2014). Scant information on the habitat of the species is An adult female of C. lateritius (MZFC 31980) was available, but it has been reported from thorn scrub, and donated to ENS on 17 June 2007 by Juan Carlos Flores tropical deciduous forests (Reyes-Velasco et al., 2009; from Cerro La Imagen, Ejido Zoyatepec, Municipality Suazo-Ortuño et al., 2014) at elevations of 16 to 1589 of Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero (17.3491°N, m asl (Ponce-Campos, 2007). Here we report on the -99.5193°W, WGS-84; 1093 m). The specimen first records of C. lateritius from the state of Guerrero, measures 272 mm SVL, 65+ tail length (broken tail); Mexico, and the first report on its diet. 7/7 supralabials; 9/9 infralabials; 19-19-17 dorsal scale A juvenile female Coniophanes lateritius (MZFC rows; 164 ventrals and 47+ subcaudals. This locality is 32626) was collected at 19:15 h on 27 June 2004 461 km SE from the nearest record from Michoacán and near the San Antonio-Ciudad Altamirano highway, 193 km SE from the record from Zihuatanejo de Azueta municipality of Zihuatanejo de Azueta, Guerrero, reported herein. México (17.95809°N, -101.2261°W, WGS-84; 1600 m; When examining the specimen from Zihuatanejo Fig. 1) as it was active in the forest floor. The habitat was de Azueta (MZFC 32626), a bulge was detected in its tropical semi-deciduous forest. The specimen measured stomach, suggesting the presence of a prey item. Upon 126 mm in snout–vent length (SVL) with a tail length dissection we obtained one egg measuring 13 mm in of 56 mm; 7/7 supralabials; 9/9 infralabials; 19-19-17 length (Fig. 1C). Although the egg cannot be associated with certainty to any species, because it is soft-shelled and has a leathery texture we assume it is an egg of a squamate reptile. Reptile eggs have been reported to be part of the diet of other congeners such as C. fissidens 1 Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera”, Facultad de (Seib, 1985) and C. schmidti (Köhler et al., 2017), but Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. A. P. this is the first report of any prey item for C. lateritius. 70-399, C. P. 04510, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, México. Seib (1985) reported that C. fissidens ate more eggs in 2 Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, 1er. Piso, Circuito de Posgrados,Ciudad March and June, decreasing in frequency during the Universitaria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, following months, probably a result of the reproductive 04510 Mexico City, Mexico. patterns of sympatric amphibians and reptiles. 3 Laboratorio de Herpetología 2, Departamento de Zoología, The known distribution of C. lateritius exhibits a hiatus Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de between the states of Michoacán and the new records México, A. P. 70515, C. P. 04510 Coyoacán, Ciudad de from Guerrero reported herein (Fig. 2). Ponce-Campos México, México. and Smith (2001), when evaluating the species limits 4 Department of Biology, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, 76019, Texas, U.S.A. within the C. lateritius group, described C. sarae from * Corresponding author. E-mail: the Sierra de Coalcomán in Michoacán and the lower [email protected] Río Balsas drainage. The paratype of C. sarae (UMMZ 652 Ricardo Palacios-Aguilar et al.

Figure 1. New specimens of Coniophanes lateritius from municipality of Chilpancingo (1A MZFC 31980) and Zihuatanejo (1B, MZFC 32626), Guerrero, Mexico. On the bottom MZFC 32626 is shown with its prey item.

Figure 2. Map showing the known localities of C. lateritius (white circles) and C. sarae (black squares) in southern portion of the range. The new records from Zihuatanejo (A) and Zoyatepec (B) are represented by black circles. First records of the snake Coniophanes lateritius from Guerrero, Mexico 653

118958) came from 12 mi S Arteaga, and is 121 and References

324 km WNW, respectively, from the Zihuatanejo Köhler, G., Cedeño-Vázquez, J. R., Myat Tun, A., Beutelspacher- and Zoyatepec records reported herein. The main García, P. M. (2017): The Chetumal snake census: generating differences noted by Ponce-Campos and Smith (2001) biological data from road-killed snakes. Part 4. Coniophanes between C. sarae and C. lateritius were an orange imperialis, C. meridanus and C. schmidti. Mesoamerican dorsal coloration, the �� Herpetology 4: 528–542. the narrow pale neck ring following the black head and Lara-Resendiz, R. A., Wyman, J., Rosen, P. C. (2016): A new record, distributional range extension, and notes on neck, and melanophores evenly distributed on back and Coniophanes lateritius (Squamata: Colubridae) in Sonora, sides. The specimen from Zoyatepec (MZFC 31980; Mexico. Mesoamerican Herpetology 3: 801–804. Fig. 1A) shows a paler dorsal coloration, but also a Ponce-Campos, P. Smith, H. M. (2001): A review of the stripeless dark border posterior to the pale neck ring and evenly snake (Coniophanes lateritius) complex of Mexico. Bulletin of distributed melanophores. In contrast, the specimen the Maryland Herpetological Society 37: 10–17. from Zihuatanejo (MZFC 32626, Fig. 1B, C) agrees Ponce-Campos, P. (2007): Coniophanes lateritius. The IUCN well with all the characteristics reported in C. lateritus. Red List of Threatened Species 2007: e.T63751A12713326. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS. We prefer to maintain a conservative posture and T63751A12713326.en. Accesed on 27 June 2017. consider both Guerrero specimens as representatives Reyes-Velasco, J., Hermosillo-López, I. A., Grünwald, C. I., of C. lateritius rather than C. sarae, even though these Ávila-López, O. A. (2009): New state records for amphibians might more logically be considered the latter on the and reptiles from Colima, Mexico. Herpetological Review 40: basis of distribution. The discovery of C. lateritius in 117–120. Guerrero brings into question the validity of C. sarae Seib, R. L. (1985): Euryphagy in a tropical snake, Coniophanes and a comprehensive work evaluating the variation, fissidens. Biotropica 17: 57–64. Suazo-Ortuño, I., Paz-Gutiérrez, J. G., Medina-Aguilar, O., Bucio, taxonomic status, and distribution of these snakes is L. E., González-Hernández, A. J., Reynoso, V. H. (2014): necessary. Geographic Distribution: Coniophanes lateritius (Stripeless Snake). Herpetological Review 45: 284. Acknowledgements. We would like to thank to L. Canseco- Márquez for bringing attention to the specimens reported herein and providing photographs of MZFC 32626 in life, E. Beltrán- Sánchez helped to verify the geographical plotting of the Cerro de La Imagen record. V. Jiménez-Arcos and A. Durso made important comments and corrections on the preliminary versions of the manuscript. Figure 1 was elaborated by A. Calzada- Arciniega. Personnel at the Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera” helped with the accession of the specimens reported herein and crucial comparative material, special thanks goes to O. Flores-Villela, L. Ochoa-Ochoa and E. Pérez-Ramos. This paper is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. DEB-0613802 to JAC) and collecting permits issued by SEMARNAT to O. Flores-Villela. Publication funding was provided to RPA by a CONACyT scholarship facilitated by the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Accepted by Andrew Durso