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Cfreptiles & Amphibians WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS IRCF REPTILES • VOL15, &NO AMPHIBIANS 4 • DEC 2008 189 • 21(1):28–29 • MAR 2014 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES . ChasingHypermelanism Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: in the Cuban On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: LesserA HypotheticalRacer Excursion ............................................................................................................................ (Caraiba andreae: Dipsadidae)Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCH ARTICLESfrom Western Cuba . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida1 2 3 .............................................JavierBrian Torres J. Camposano,, Ruben Kenneth Marrero L. Krysko, Kevin, and M. OrlandoEnge, Ellen M. J. Donlan, Torres and Michael Granatosky 212 1Departamento de Biología Animal y Humana, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de la Habana. CONSERVATION ALERT Calle 25 e/ J e I, Plaza, CP 10400, La Habana, Cuba ([email protected]) . 2InstitutoWorld’s Mammals de Ecología in Crisis y Sistemática, ............................................................................................................................................................. Carretera Varona, Km 3½, Capdevila, Boyeros, CP 10800, La Habana, Cuba220 . More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 3Centro de Estudios de Medio Ambiente, Universidad de La Habana. Zapata e/ G y Carlitos Aguirre, Plaza, CP 10400, La Habana, Cuba . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 araiba is a monotypicPROFILE genus endemic to Cuba (Hedges characters, various coloration patterns are used to differenti- Cet al. 2009). Caraiba. Kraig andreaeAdler: A Lifetime (Fig. Promoting 1) is aHerpetology diurnally ................................................................................................ active, ate six subspecies (Thomas Michael and L. TregliaGarrido 234 1967, Garrido 1973). fast-moving, ground-dwelling, pan-Cuban species with a The nominal subspecies (Fig. 1A) is distributed through- COMMENTARY unique color pattern among Cuban snakes. As indicated by . The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................out western and central Cuba Eric Gangloff (Schwartz 238 and Henderson one of its English names (Black-and-White Racer), coloration 1991). It is characterized by having a uniformly black dorsum generally is a combinationBOOK REVIEW of a black dorsum and a white ven- and a white venter, although ventral scale edges can be black, . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, ter, although each color R.can Berridge, invade P. Ramani, the and other B.E. Young region .............................................................................................................. to some especially toward the vent. RobertThe Powell top 243of the head is black, but extent. Ventral scales can be completely white or with a black white or yellowish canthal bands, which can extend to the edge of variable width, CONSERVATION but white is RESEARCH always present. REPORTS: The Summaries dor- of Publishedparietal Conservation region Research and Reports onto ................................. the nape, are 245 usually present. Labial NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 sum can have small whiteNEWBRIEFS spots ......................................................................................................................................................................................and the flanks can be as much scales are white. Herein we report a 248hypermelanistic, almost as 50 percent white. EDITORIAL In combination INFORMATION with ..................................................................................................................................................... morphological entirely black individual. 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... On 12 January 252 2013 at 1130 h, Luis Pérez Marrero collected an almost completely black male C. a. andreae (Fig. 1B) in a tree branch Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo at approximately 2 m above the estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil ground in Cerro municipality, erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum La Habana, Cuba (23.11438°N, fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque 82.38067°W; datum: NAD27). moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as The head lacks parietal bands and accullabo. those on the canthals are indis- tinct. A small amount of white color is evident only on the ante- rior fifth of the body. Labial scales are mostly white, but are stippled with black. The ventral surface of the rostrum has a rosy tint. The Fig. 1. Adult Caraiba a. andreae from La Habana, Cuba. (A) Typical black and white pattern. (B) Hypermelanistic pattern. Details of lateral and ventral scales in the right upper corner of each image. Copyright © 2014. Javier Torres. All rights reserved. 28 TORRES ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 21(1):28–29 • MAR 2014 gular region is white with black splashes. The underside of Acknowledgement the neck is marbled, with a predominance of white, which We thank Adninsay Pérez Marrero and Luis Pérez Marrero fades until the white remains only as splashes anteriorly on for the donation of the specimen. scale rows one and two. Despite the species’ relative abundance and wide dis- Literature Cited tribution (Schwartz and Henderson 1991), this constitutes Garrido, O.H. 1973. Nuevas subespecies de reptiles para Cuba. Torreia 30:1–31. only the second incidence of hypermelanism recorded in this Schwartz, A. and R.W. Henderson. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Description, Distributions, and Natural History. University of Florida Press, species. Garrido (1973) found a melanistic snake in western Gainesville. Cuba. Not as dark as the individual described herein, the ven- Thomas, R. and O.H. Garrido. 1967. A new subspecies of Dromicus andreae ter of Garrido’s specimen was dark gray, unlike the black of (Serpentes: Colubridae). Annals of Carnegie Museum 39:219–226. Hedges, S.B., A. Couloux, and N. Vidal. 2009. Molecular phylogeny, classification, the dorsum, and an interrupted light gray line was evident and biogeography of West Indian racer snakes of the tribe Alsophiini (Squamata, between lateral and ventral scales. Dipsadidae, Xenodontinae). Zootaxa 2067:1–28. 29.
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