Herpetology Notes, volume 14: 239-241 (2021) (published online on 01 February 2021)

Predation of the Drymoluber dichrous (Peters, 1863) (Serpentes: ) by the blondi (Latreille, 1804) (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in the Brazilian Amazon

Thiago Machado Bilce1, Luana Barbosa Monteiro1, Tássio Alves Coêlho2,*, and Darlison Chagas De Souza1,2

Arthropods are considered to be potential predators and Oliveira, 1998; Borges-Nojosa and Lima, 2001; of a wide range of (Barbo et al., 2009; von França et al., 2006; Costa et al., 2013; Fraga et al., 2013; May et al., 2019). Records of snake predation by Nogueira et al., 2019). are poorly documented, especially involving of This snake displays several defensive behaviours such Theraphosidae (Maffei et al., 2010; Borges et al., 2016; as: smelly secretions, tail vibration, body flattening, Nyffeler et al., 2017). body thrashing, biting, striking, body rotation, crypsis, The family Theraphosidae Thorell, 1869 consists of head elevation, neck S-coil and pseudoautotomy 151 genera and 1004 species (World Spider Catalog, (Martins and Oliveira, 1998; Martins et al., 2008; Fraga 2021). The Theraphosa Thorell, 1870, popularly et al., 2013; Costa et al., 2014). We report the first event known as (Queiroz Almeida et al., 2018), of predation on a juvenile D. dichrous by T. blondi, is composed of three species: Theraphosa apophysis recorded in an area of the Amazon . (Tinter, 1991), T. blondi (Latreille, 1804), and T. stirmi This event happened on 6 April 2019 at 12:10 h in a Rudolff & Weinmann, 2010. The forested area located in the municipality of Oriximiná, (T. blondi) is one of the largest known spiders, state of Pará, (1.6130°S, 56.6208°W; WGS 84; reaching up to 260 mm in length, having predominantly elevation 188 m), during wildlife inventory activities. nocturnal habits and a generalist diet, feeding on The individuals were not collected; therefore, this report invertebrates or small vertebrates (Boistel and Pauwels, is only based on the observations and photographic 2002a,b; Menin et al., 2005; Carvalho et al., 2016; record. Queiroz Almeida et al., 2018). During a pitfall trap inspection, we noticed a D. Drymoluber dichrous (Peters, 1863) is a diurnal snake dichrous moving erratically on the soil, and out of the that actively forages on the ground during the day and buckets. Its movements were not compatible with what rests on the vegetation at night. Its diet is based on was expected of this . As we removed the drift and (including their ), and occasionally on fence that constitutes the trap, we found a T. blondi other (Martins and Oliveira, 1998; Borges-Nojosa with the chelicerae grasped in the snake’s midbody, and Lima, 2001; Fraga et al., 2013). It is endemic to already feeding on it (Fig. 1). Initially we observed the , occurring in Bolivia, Brazil, , snakes’ defensive behaviour, as it was rotating its body. Ecuador, , , Peru, , and Finally, after 12 minutes, these movements ceased, and . In Brazil, it is widespread in Amazonia and the spider kept on feeding. This whole event lasted for in the Atlantic Forest, mostly at low elevations (Martins approximately 20 minutes. Theraphosa blondi has been recorded preying on vertebrates in the Brazilian Amazon forest: e.g., birds (Campos e Silva and de Meirelles, 2016; Carvalho et 1 Biodinamica Engenharia e Meio Ambiente, Rio de Janeiro, al., 2016), lizards (Coêlho et al., 2019), and snakes Rio de Janeiro 20031-144, Brazil. (Da Silva et al., 2019). Our observations corroborate 2 Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologia das Águas, Universidade the findings of Da Silva et al. (2019) who reported the Federal do Oeste do Pará, 68040-255, Santarém, Pará, Brazil. predation of a Leptodeira annulata by T. blondi in the * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] municipality of Anapú, state of Pará, Brazil. Reports on © 2021 by Notes. Open Access by CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. the predation of squamates by spiders are scarce in the 240 Thiago Machado Bilce �� al.

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Accepted by Rodrigo Gonzalez