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Distribution of Crotalus Scutulatus (Kennicott, 1861) in Tamaulipas, Mexico and Notes on Earliest Seasonal Parturition

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Distribution of Crotalus Scutulatus (Kennicott, 1861) in Tamaulipas, Mexico and Notes on Earliest Seasonal Parturition Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 1087-1093 (2020) (published online on 28 December 2020) Distribution of Crotalus scutulatus (Kennicott, 1861) in Tamaulipas, Mexico and notes on earliest seasonal parturition William L. Farr1 and Sergio A. Terán-Juárez2,* Abstract. In Tamaulipas, Mexico, Crotalus scutulatus is known from only two specimens collected from the same locality almost a century ago. Both were catalogued as Crotalus atrox at that time and one of the two remained so as recently as 2003, while the other has been transferred between three collections and re-identified in the intervening years. Our aim was to locate additional records (museum, literature, and field) and establish the distributional limits of C. scutulatus in Tamaulipas. Fieldwork yielded additional records, which are mapped, and the habitat is described. Among the field records are neonates that indicate the earliest reported parturition dates for the species. To the best of our knowledge this is the first review that specifically addresses the occurrence of C. scutulatus in Tamaulipas. Keywords. distribution, habitat, vegetation zones, parturition Introduction the Northern Mohave Rattlesnake, C. s. scutulatus (Kennicott, 1861) and the Huamantla Rattlesnake, The Mohave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus C. s. salvini Günther, 1895. Crotalus s. scutulatus (Kennicott, 1861), inhabits the deserts of the south- is distributed from the Mojave Desert in southern western United States and the interior central plateau of California, the southern tip of Nevada, extreme south- Mexico. Recent studies have examined cryptic genetic western Utah, south-eastward through much of Arizona, diversity and geographic variation in morphology, northern Sonora, extreme southern New Mexico, the providing evidence that various populations of the Big Bend region of Texas, and southward across the species have undergone several episodes of isolation and Mexican Plateau, including southwest Tamaulipas, secondary contact that produced four genetic lineages: into Guanajuato. Crotalus s. salvini has been reported Mohave-Sonoran Desert, Chihuahuan Desert, Central from the south-central Mexican states of Hidalgo, Mexican Plateau, and southern Mexican matorral (C. Querétaro, Estado de México, Puebla, Tlaxcala, and s. salvini lineage), with the Tamaulipas population extreme central-west Veracruz (Klauber 1972; Price, included in the Central Mexican Plateau lineage 1982; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Dominguez-Laso (Schield et al., 2018; Strickland et al., 2018; Watson et et al., 2007; Valencia-Hernández et al., 2007; Canseco- al., 2019). Watson et al. (2019) concluded that although Márquez and Gutiérrez-Mayen, 2010; Fernández- past isolation had produced clinal variations across Badillo et al., 2016); however, recent studies indicate its distribution, with renewed gene flow C. scutulatus a distribution restricted to only the latter four states was a cohesive species without discrete subgroups. (Schield et al., 2018; Strickland et al., 2018; Watson et Historically, two subspecies, referred to as “poorly al., 2019). The species has also been of interest in venom defined” by Watson et al. (2019), are recognised, research, with studies showing that the venom varies significantly among populations that are not correlated to the four major genetic lineages (Borja et al., 2018; Strickland et al., 2018; Zancolli et al., 2019). Although the occurrence of C. scutulatus in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, has been reflected in 1 1019 Wainfleet Lane, Houston, Texas, 77096, USA. 2 Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de the literature for over 80 years, literature identifying Ciudad Victoria, Blvd. Emilio Portes Gil 1301, 87010, specific localities or museum specimens has been Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico. lacking. We located only two prior museum vouchers * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] MCZ R-19554 and SDNHM 6573. Both were collected 1088 William L. Farr & Sergio A. Terán-Juárez in June of 1924 from “Miquihuana, 80 mi SW Victoria” UANL, UCM, UF, UMMZ, USNM, UTA, and UTEP by professional collector Wilmot W. Brown, Jr., and (examined); FWM, JFBM, MCZ, MSUM, NMSU, deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology SMBU, UAZ (not examined). Standard symbolic codes (MCZ), where they were catalogued as Crotalus follow Sabaj (2019) with the exceptions of University atrox Baird and Girard 1853 (MCZ R-19554-19555). of Arlington Digital Collection (UTADC) and William Klauber (1930: 46) noted that the MCZ had C. atrox L. Farr personal field numbers (WLF). Additionally, we specimens from Miquihuana, Tamaulipas but explicitly searched the online database VertNet.org for additional stated that he had not examined them at that time and records from Tamaulipas and adjacent areas of the did not include them in his review due to the possibility neighbouring states of Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí. of confusion with C. scutulatus or C. basiliscus (Cope, Literature was reviewed for previous distributional 1864). One of the specimens (MCZ R-19555) was records and dates of birth. A total of 86 field days of transferred and catalogued in the private collection of herpetological surveys were conducted by the authors Laurence M. Klauber as C. scutulatus (LMK 6573) and in the municipalities of Bustamante, Miquihuana, later transferred again, and is now in the collection of the and Tula, where C. scutulatus might be anticipated to San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM 6573) occur; WLF conducted 71 field days of visual search (Bradford Hollingsworth, pers. comm.). However, as surveys and night driving performed in the months of recently as 2003, a request for data on MCZ Tamaulipas July-October, between 2003-2009; SATJ conducted herpetofauna included both MCZ R-19554 and 19555 15 field days of visual search surveys performed in the catalogued as Crotalus atrox. Klauber (1936) was the months of January, February, April, June-August and first to include Tamaulipas in the range of C. scutulatus, October, between 2014-2019. Locality coordinates and in his text and map, presumably based on one or both elevations of original field data were determined using of these specimens, however he did not identify any a GPS device using map datum WGS84. Distances museum specimens or specific localities. Over 80 years are expressed in straight air kilometres from the town of subsequent literature follow this pattern of noting square of municipality capitals. For the older museum and or mapping southwest Tamaulipas in the range and literature locality records that do not include of C. scutulatus, without identifying sources, data, coordinates and elevations, we have approximated voucher specimens, or localities (Gloyd, 1940; Smith these data using Google Earth (datum WGS84) and and Taylor, 1945; Wright and Wright, 1962; Klauber, these data are expressed in brackets [ ]. A model of 1972; Morafka, 1977; Price, 1982; Conant and Collins, the potential distribution of C. scutulatus available in 1991; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Fernández-Badillo et a recent program for the conservation of the Mexican al., 2016; Heimes, 2016). Recently, Watson et al. (2019) rattlesnakes (SEMARNAT, 2018) was included in our mapped the distribution of C. scutulatus and included map and the records reported here are superimposed SDNHM 6573 as their only specimen from Tamaulipas. on the predicted optimal area for comparison. We It appears that the distribution of C. scutulatus in describe the habitat and vegetation in Tamaulipas where Tamaulipas is based solely on these two specimens C. scutulatus is known to occur and briefly discuss (MCZ R-19554 and SDNHM 6573 [formerly MCZ R- observations on natural history made during fieldwork. 19555 and LMK 6573]), both collected from the same locality over 95 years ago. Herein, we report on eight Results additional records produced in fieldwork conducted in Museum records yielded only the two previously Tamaulipas. known records MCZ R-19554 and SDNHM 6573 [both of which we estimated as having been collected at ca. Materials and Methods 23.5803°N, 99.7502°W, 1,895 m elev.]. Queries of The following institutions were queried for amphibian the online database VertNet.org yielded no additional and reptile voucher specimens from Tamaulipas which records from Tamaulipas, but 12 records for adjacent provided a total of over 16,100 records: AMNH, ANSP, areas of Nuevo León and one from San Luis Potosí (not BYU, CAS, CM, FMNH, INHS[UIMNH], KU, LACM, examined) were found (Nuevo Leon: CM 59879, CM LSUM, LSUS, MPM, MVZ, OMNH, OSUS, ROM, 59883, CM 59885, CM 59886, CM 59887, CM 59888, SDNHM, SRSU, TCWC, TNHC, TU [transferred in CM 59889, 59890, CM 59891, KU 187318, SDNHM 2011 to LSUM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (ca. 60478, TCWC 57191; San Luis Potosi: KU 67743). 80%) and SLU in Hammond, Louisiana, USA (ca. 20%)], Fieldwork in Tamaulipas produced eight records, one of Distribution of Crotalus scutulatus in Tamaulipas, Mexico 1089 which was deposited in the UANL collection, five were record is known from as close as 14 km. from UANL- deposited as photographic vouchers with UTADC, and 6633 and WLF-1704 in the neighboring municipality of two additional observations recorded in field notes with Jaumave [UANL 4842: 23.4415°N, 99.5290°W, 1,358 dates, localities, coordinates, temperatures, and other m.] however this record is separated by the Sierra Los data but not photographed. All available records, dates, Quemados and Sierra La Peña/Sierra El Pino ranges and localities from Tamaulipas are included in Table 1.
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