Cfreptiles & Amphibians
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WWW.IRCF.ORG TABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES &IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 189 27(2):147–153 • AUG 2020 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES . Chasing NotesBullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer on sayi) in Wisconsin:the Feeding Habits On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Sharedof History the of Treeboas (CaribbeanCorallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: Watersnake, A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCHTretanorhinus ARTICLES variabilis (Dipsadidae) . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 Yaira López-Hurtado. The Knight1, L. Anole Yusnaviel (Anolis equestris García-Padrón) in Florida 2, Adonis González1, Luis M. Díaz3, and Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera4 .............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 1Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, La Habana 11900, Cuba ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) CONSERVATION2Museo de Historia Natural ALERT “Tranquilino Sandalio de Noda,” Martí 202, Pinar del Río, Cuba ([email protected]) . World’s Mammals3Museo in Nacional Crisis ............................................................................................................................... de Historia Natural de Cuba, La Habana, Cuba ([email protected]).............................. 220 . More Than4Sociedad Mammals Cubana ............................................................................................................................... de Zoología, La Habana 12000, Cuba ([email protected])....................................... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 Abstract.—ThePROFILE Caribbean Watersnake, Tretanorhinus variabilis (Dipsadidae) is one of two aquatic West Indian snakes. Despite being a relatively. Kraig Adler: Acommon Lifetime Promoting species Herpetology in Cuba ................................................................................................ and the Cayman Islands, its feeding Michael habits L. Treglia have 234 been poorly stud- ied. Herein we report several new instances of predation by this species on fishes, frogs, and a freshwater crab. The latter represents the COMMENTARYfirst record of durophagy in this species and the third snake reported as a crab eater in the West Indies. The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Eric Gangloff 238 he NeotropicalBOOK snake REVIEW genus Tretanorhinus (Dipsadidae) Cuban Archipelago and one occurs on Grand Cayman, the comprises four. Threatenedaquatic Amphibians species: of the WorldThe edited Caribbean by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann,Cayman J.S. Islands Chanson, (SchwartzN.A. Cox, and Henderson 1991; Henderson T R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243 Watersnake (T. variabilis Duméril and Bibron 1854) in the and Powell 2009; Estrada 2012; Rodríguez et al. 2013; Fig. West Indies, the Orange-bellied CONSERVATION Swampsnake RESEARCH REPORTS: (T. nigroluteus Summaries) of Published2). TheConservation Caribbean Research Reports Watersnake, ................................. which 245 occurs only in aquatic from southern Mexico NATURAL to Panama, HISTORY Mocquard’s RESEARCH REPORTS Swampsnake: Summaries of Publishedecosystems, Reports on exhibits Natural History some ................................. morphological 247 adaptations to an NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 (T. mocquardi) from EDITORIAL Panama INFORMATIONto Ecuador, ...............................................................................................................................and the Striped aquatic lifestyle. These include...................... dorsally 251 positioned eyes and Swampsnake (T. taeniatus FOCUS) ONfrom CONSERVATION Colombia to: AEcuador Project You (UetzCan Support ...............................................................................................nostrils (Barbour and Ramsden 1919; 252 Buide 1985; Fig. 1A) et al. 2020). The Caribbean Watersnake (Fig. 1) is one of two and dark markings on a dark olive ground color that blend aquatic West Indian snakes; the other is the Salt Marsh Snake, perfectly with the leaf litter and algae-covered rocks on the Nerodia clarkii compressicauda (Natricidae) (Neill 1965; bottom of ponds and streams (Fig. 1B). Those characteris- Henderson and Crother 1989; SchwartzFront Cover. andShannon Henderson Plummer. tics, Backhowever, Cover. Michael might Kern be considered just a first stage toward Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo 1991; Henderson and Powell 2009).estibus Of inveliquo the veliquefive currently rerchil theestibus development inveliquo velique of rerchil more complex adaptations to an aquatic recognized subspecies of T. variabiliserspienimus,, four quos are accullabo. from Ilibus the erspienimus,lifestyle (seequos accullabo. Lillywhite Ilibus 2014 for a review). aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. Fig. 1. The Caribbean Watersnake (Tretanorhinus variabilis) exhibits some adaptations to an aquatic lifestyle, such as the eyes and nostrils on top of the head (A) and a color pattern that blends well with the riparian environments it inhabits (B). Photographs © T.M. Rodríguez-Cabrera. Copyright © 2020. Yaira López-Hurtado. All rights reserved. 147 IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324 LÓPEZ-HURTADO ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 27(2):147–153 • AUG 2020 Although this species is relatively common and widely is the only previously confirmed prey species of this snake. distributed in Cuba (Fig. 2), where it has an elevational range Schwartz and Ogren (1956) mentioned a snake from Granma from sea level to 1,000 m (Rodríguez et al. 2010, 2013; Province (T. v. binghami) that had captured and swallowed a Estrada 2012), little is known about its natural history (see small unidentified fish. Neill (1965) also observed individuals Henderson and Powell 2009 for a review). This snake appears of this species (T. v. binghami) pursuing small fishes by “snap- to consume mostly fishes, amphibians, and aquatic inverte- ping randomly right and left amidst the darting schools,” in brates. Barbour and Ramsden (1919) mentioned that it preys the saltwater of a deep ditch in southern Mayabeque Province. on fishes, “usually cyprinodonts, called in Cuba Guajacones” Other authors (Vogel 1965; Henderson and Crother 1989; (i.e., Poeciliidae). Neill (1965) found a snake that had con- Seidel and Franz 1994; Sampedro and Rodríguez 2003; Díaz sumed a small introduced American Bullfrog (Lithobates and Cádiz 2008) merely listed aquatic invertebrates, fishes, catesbeianus) from a river in Pinar del Río Province, which amphibians and their larvae, and small lizards among the prey of this snake, without providing any additional details. Herein we report four instances of predation and one of for- aging behavior by Caribbean Watersnakes (T. v. wagleri and T. v. variabilis) in western Cuba, including the first case of durophagy in this species. Methods We measured snake snout-vent length (SVL), tail length, and head length to the nearest millimeter using either direct measurements with a measuring tape or a caliper or from photographs using the program ImageJ (v. 1.43; https:// imagej.nih.gov/ij/). In two instances, we estimated total length. We also measured stomach content volumes to the nearest cubic millimeter by noting liquid displacement of distilled water in a graduated cylinder. Data for all coordi- nates is WGS 84. Voucher specimens were preserved in etha- nol (75%) and deposited in the zoological collections of the Museo de Historia Natural “Tranquilino Sandalio de Noda” (MHN.TSN), Pinar del Río, and the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática (CZACC), La Habana, Cuba. Fig. 2. Distribution of the Caribbean Watersnake (Tretanorhinus variabi- lis) in Cuba and the Cayman Islands (top): T. v. variabilis (yellow dots), T. v. wagleri (red dots), T. v. insulaepinorum (orange dots), T. v. binghami (blue dots), and T. v. lewisi (green dots); purple dots represent popula- tions not assigned to subspecies (based largely on Schwartz and Henderson 1991; Estrada 2012; Rodríguez et al. 2013; T.M. Rodríguez-Cabrera, per. obs.). A section of western Cuba (center) depicting the locations where we observed predation events