Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 517-522 (2020) (published online on 25 June 2020)

New records of rabdocephalus (Wied-Neuwied, 1824) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) in the Pernambuco Endemism Center, Northeastern

José H. de Andrade Lima1,2, Marco A. de Freitas3, Marcos J. M. Dubeux4, Pedro M. Sales Nunes4, Igor J. Roberto5, and Marcelo N. de C. Kokubum1,2,6,*

The false fer-de-lance, areas, and in Atlantic Forest, from southern Bahia State (Wied-Neuwied, 1824) is a diurnal and terrestrial to the north of Rio de Janeiro State (Nogueira et al., found in proximity to water bodies in primary and 2019). secondary forests in the Mexican lowlands, southern Until now, the presence of X. rabdocephalus in areas to the northwest of , west of of the Atlantic Forest to the north of the São Francisco the Andes, Colombian and Peruvian Amazon, and in River, an area designated as the Pernambuco Endemism Brazilian rainforests (Savage, 2002; Cole et al., 2013; Center (CEP) (Tabarelli and Santos, 2004) is limited to Nogueira et al., 2019). two records, both neglected in the recent compilation of In Brazil, the has a disjunct distribution distribution of Brazilian (i.e. Atlas of Brazilian occurring in the Amazon forest (in the States of Acre, Snakes – Nogueira et al., 2019). The first record is Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Roraima, Maranhão and Mato from Reserva Biológica de Pedra Talhada (9.2476° S, Grosso). It can also be found in Amazon-Cerrado ecotone 36.4275° W; Datum WSG84; 722 m elevation) (Roberto et al., 2015), exactly on the border between the States of Pernambuco and Alagoas. The second record is from Parque Estadual de Dois Irmãos (7.9755° S, 34.9506° W; Datum WSG84; 88 m elevation) (Santos et al., 2017), a state park in coastal Pernambuco state. ¹ Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Centro de Saúde Herein, we present new records of Xenodon e Tecnologia Rural, Unidade Acadêmica de Ciências rabdocephalus in five locations in the states of Biológicas, Laboratório de Herpetologia, Jatobá, CEP 58708- Pernambuco and Alagoas, expanding its distribution in 110, Patos, Paraíba, Brazil. 2 Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Centro de Saúde e the CEP about 207 km northweast of its second and last Tecnologia Rural, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências record in this portion of the Atlantic Forest and updating Florestais, Jatobá, CEP 58708-110, Patos, Paraíba, Brazil. the known distribution for the species (see also Nogueira 3 Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade et al., 2019). (ICMBio), Estação Ecológica de Murici, Rua Marino Vieira The records were collected during herpetofaunistic de Araújo 32, Cidade Alta, CEP 57820-000, Murici, Alagoas, inventories or opportunistic encounters, all in forest Brazil. remnants in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas (Fig. 4 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Programa de Pós- Graduação em Biologia , Departamento de Zoologia. 1). The snakes were photographed and their localities Avenida Professor Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, were georeferenced. Six out of eight individuals CEP 50670‑901, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. were collected and are deposited in the collections of 5 Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Instituto de Ciências Laboratório de Herpetologia of Universidade Federal Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia. de Campina Grande (LHUFCG), Laboratório de Avenida Rodrigo Otávio, 6.200, Japim, CEP 69077‑000, Estudos Herpetológicos e Paleoherpetológicos of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), 6 Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Bairro Universitário, CEP and Coleção Herpetológica da Universidade Federal 58429-500, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. de Pernambuco (CHUFPE). The new records added * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] here are provided in Table 1. 518 José H. de Andrade Lima et al.

Although X. rabdocephalus has already been reported in the Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural Frei Caneca (Roberto et al., 2017), this individual was only identified at the level and it was not collected, therefore, until now the presence of the species in that location was not unambiguously confirmed. The presence of the species in two areas of altitudinal forest (Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural Frei Caneca and Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas do Siriji) reveals that the altitudinal distribution of X. rabdocephalus is not limited to the lowlands (0-500 m elevation), contrasting with that reported in the literature so far (Savage, 2002; Santos-Costa et al., 2015; Nogueira et al., 2019). In addition, the consistent presence of the species inside or very close to dense rainforest fragments demonstrates Figure 1. Xenodon rabdocephalus distribution in the Atlantic its habitat preference of humid environments with high Forest remnants of the Pernambuco Endemism Center (CEP), vegetation cover and a dense layer of leaflitter. Northeastern Brazil. 1 = Reserva Biológica Pedra Talhada, Although being the most threatened portion of municipalities of Quebrangulho and Lagoa do Ouro, States Atlantic Forest (currently represented by 12.1% of its of Alagoas and Pernambuco; 2 = Parque Estadual de Dois original cover; Ribeiro et al., 2009) the CEP has small, Irmãos, municipality of Recife, State of Pernambuco; 3 but important, refuges for forest snakes, as well as for = Área de Proteção Ambiental de Murici, municipality of other animal and plant species (Brown, 1979; Prance, Murici, State of Alagoas; 4 = Reserva Particular do Patrimônio 1982; Tyler et al., 1994; Silva et al., 2004; Santos et Natural Frei Caneca, municipality of Lagoa dos Gatos, State al., 2007; Lobo-Araújo et al., 2013; Vale et al., 2018). of Pernambuco; 5 = Mata do Tauá, municipality of Sirinhaém, State of Pernambuco; 6 = Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas de Recent records in this region expanding the distributions Água Azul, municipality of Timbaúba, State of Pernambuco; of several snake species (Dias et al., 2019a,b; França et al., 2019; Freitas et al., 2019) reflect the lack of 7 = Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas do Siriji, municipality 1 of São Vicente Férrer, State of Pernambuco. Inset map: South herpetofaunal surveys in the past and demonstrate the America. potential for new discoveries. In fact, Pereira-Filho et al. 1 Table 1. New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in Pernambuco Endemism Center (CEP), Northeastern Brazil. Abbreviations of localities =

2 Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural (RPPN), Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA), Refúgio de Vida Silvestre (RVS). Datum WGS84. Table 1. New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in Pernambuco Endemism Center (CEP), Northeastern Brazil. Abbreviations of3 localities = Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural (RPPN), Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA), Refúgio de Vida Silvestre (RVS). Datum WGS84.

Locality Coordinate Elev. (m) Date Substrate Figure Observation RPPN Frei Caneca, Lagoa dos Gatos 8.6948° S 561 April Leaf litter 2A–B Adult municipality, Pernambuco State 35.8568° W 28th 2010 APA de Murici, Murici municipality, 9.2431° S 317 April Road in edge 2C–D Adult; 90cm total length; Alagoas State 35.9189° W 05th 2018 forest UFRPE 5543; found dead RVS Matas de Água Azul, Timbaúba 7.5996° S 425 July Leaf litter in 2E–F Juvenile; CHUFPE-R 971 municipality, Pernambuco State 35.4083° W 26th 2018 edge forest RVS Matas do Siriji, São Vicente Férrer 7.5833° S 512 December Leaf litter near a 3A–B Juvenile; 31cm total length; municipality, Pernambuco State 35.5109° W 21th 2018 stream LHUFCG 2266; found dead January Leaf litter near a 3C Adult; 55cm total length; 25th 2019 stream LHUFCG 2285 January Substrate of dry 3E–F Adult; ~60cm total length; 14th 2020 banana leaves predating a (Rhinella crucifer) September Near a puddle 3D Adult; 87cm total length; 20th 2020 LHUFCG 2450; found dead Mata do Tauá, Sirinhaém municipality, 8.5688° S 55 January Humid litter, 3G–H Juvenile; CHUFPE-R 970 Pernambuco State 35.1646° W 28th 2020 close to a stream

New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in northeastern Brazil 519

Figure 2. New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in Pernambuco Endemism Center (CEP), Northeastern Brazil. Predominant habitat (left) and individual (right) for each record. A–B: Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural Frei Caneca, in the municipality of Lagoa dos Gatos, state of Pernambuco; C–D: Área de Proteção Ambiental Murici, in the municipality of Murici, state of Alagoas. E–F: Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas de Água Azul, in the municipality of Timbaúba, state of Pernambuco.

(2020) affirms that the CEP is the portion of the Atlantic Freitas et al, 2019), Bothrops bilineatus (Wied, 1821) Forest with the greatest lack of data on fauna, including (SEMAS, 2017) and Lachesis muta (Linnaeus, 1766) snakes. Besides that, many of these new records are for (SEMAS, 2017), reinforcing that protection measures species of conservation concern, such as Echinanthera are urgently needed in this Atlantic Forest portion. cephalomaculata Di-Bernardo, 1994 (MMA, 2014; 520 José H. de Andrade Lima et al.

Figure 3. New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in Pernambuco Endemism Center, Northeastern Brazil. Predominant habitat (A) and individuals (B–F) record in Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas do Siriji, in the municipality of São Vicente Férrer, state of Pernambuco; Predominant habitat (G) and individual (H) record in Mata do Tauá, in the municipality of Sirinhaém, state of Pernambuco. New records of Xenodon rabdocephalus in northeastern Brazil 521

Our records expand the distribution of this species Cunha, O.R., Nascimento, F.P. (1993): Ofídios da Amazônia. As in the Atlantic Forest more than 200 km northwest, cobras da região leste do Pará. Boletim do Museu Paraense representing the northernmost record in this biome. Emílio Goeldi 9: 1–191. Dias, E.G., Santos, I.Y.G.S., Silva, F.J., Lima, E.S.M., Rocha, E.B.G., Additionally, we expand its known area of occurrence Santos, R.L., Santos, E.M. (2019): variegata variegata. in the CEP, representing an important step towards a Brazil: Pernambuco: São Vicente Férrer. Herpetological Review better understanding of the taxon’s distribution and the 50(1): 105.a. faunal composition of the region. Dias, E.G., Silva, F.J., Lima, E.S.M., Souza, J.S., Santos, E.M. Additionally, we consider it important to emphasize (2019): Echinanthera cephalostriata. Brazil: Pernambuco: São that the act of predation by one of our specimens of X. Vicente Férrer. Herpetological Review 50(4): 748.b. rabdocephalus on the anuran Rhinella crucifer at the Dixon, J.R., Soini, P. (1977): The of the upper Amazon basin, Iquitos region, . II. Crocodilians, turtles and snakes. Refúgio de Vida Silvestre Matas do Siriji (Fig. 3E–F) Contributions in Biology and Geology. Milwaukee Public represents the first record of this anuran as a prey item Museum 1977: 1–71. in this snake’s diet and confirms its food preference for França, R.C., Morais, M.S.R., Freitas, M.A., Moura, G.J.B., França, anurans (Beebe, 1946; Dixon and Soini, 1977; Cunha F.G.R. (2019): A new record of Xenopholis scalaris scalaris and Nascimento, 1993; Martins and Oliveira, 1998; (Wucherer, 1861) (Dipsadidae) for the state of Pernambuco, Goldberg and Bursey, 2007; Santos-Costa et al., 2015). Brazil. Herpetology Notes 12: 57–59. 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Accepted by Andrew Durso