Herpetological Review Volume 40, Number 3 — September 20092008 to Enter, It Was Immediately Attacked and Expelled by the Ants

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Herpetological Review Volume 40, Number 3 — September 20092008 to enter, it was immediately attacked and expelled by the ants. The LEPTOPHIS AHAETULLA PRAESTANS (Green Parrot Snake). attack eventually ceased and the snake was able to enter the colony PREDATION ATTEMPT. Leptophis ahaetulla is a large, diur- and remain inside, preying upon adult ants and their larvae. After 5 nal, and arboreal species, occurring in different vegetation types minutes, we removed the snake from the colony and observed that from southern Mexico to Brazil and Argentina (Savage 2002. The it was covered by an odoriferous viscous substance. Presumably Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna Between such material repelled the ants and protected the snake from being Two Continents, Between Two Seas. Univ. Chicago Press. Chicago, attacked. A few minutes later, we placed the snake back into the Illinois. 934 pp.). It has been reported that L. ahaetulla forages colony and noted that the substance was produced from the cloaca in trees and shrubs for sleeping or resting frogs, and to a lesser and seemed to allow the snake to feed, undisturbed by ants. extent, arboreal lizards (Oliver 1948. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Despite the phylogenetic association of the families Lepto- 92:157–280; Pérez-Higareda et al. 2007. Serpientes de la Región typhlopidae and Anomalepididae, this specialized feeding-related de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México. Guía de Identifi cación Ilustrada. behavior has not been reported for species of the latter (Savage, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 189 pp.). There are op. cit.). no reports for prey items for L. ahaetulla in Mexico, so here we record a feeding attempt observed in Veracuz. Submitted by BRANKO HILJE, Department of Biology, On 18 April 2007 at ca. 1000 h on bare soil adjacent to buildings University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras P.O. Box 23360, San belonging to Los Tuxtlas Tropical Biology Station (18.5851°N, Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360 (e-mail: [email protected]); and 95.0752°W, 119 m elev., WGS84), we observed a L. ahaetulla MARIEL YGLESIAS, Centro Agronómico Tropical de Inves- (ca. 150 cm total length) feeding on a Baudin’s Treefrog (Smilisca tigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), Turrialba, Costa Rica (e-mail: baudini, ca. 60 mm snout–vent length). The snake held the frog in [email protected]). its mouth for a minute but when we approached to a distance of 2 m, the snake released the frog and fl ed. The frog was alive though motionless, and died some minutes later. LEPTODEIRA SEPTENTRIONALIS (Cat-eyed Snake). PREY. Frogs (especially hylids) have been recorded as the main food Many neotropical snakes feed primarily on anurans (Vitt 1983. items for L. ahaetulla elsewhere in its range (e.g., Campbell 1998. Herpetologica 39:52–66) but information regarding their individual Amphibians and Reptiles of Northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and prey species is scarce. On 15 November 2004 at 21 h, in the Re- Belize. Univ. Oklahoma Press. 380 pp.; De Albuquerque and Di- fugio de Vida Silvestre, Golfi to (Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, Bernardo 2005. Herpetol. Rev. 36:325; Lopez et al. 2003 Herpetol. 8.65°N, 83.18°W, ca. 5 m elev.), I observed an adult Leptodeira Rev. 34:68–69). Other reported prey for L. ahaetulla are birds, septentrionalis swallowing a Leptodactylus bolivianus (Fig. 1). bird’s eggs, and grasshoppers (Oliver 1948, op. cit; Lopez et al., The frog was ingested head fi rst. L. bolivianus represents a hitherto op. cit). unreported prey item for L. septentrionalis. We thank Lindley McKay for improving the English language in this note.

Submitted by ELISA CABRERA-GUZMÁN, Tropical Ecology Research Facility, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Middle Point, Northern Territory 0836, Australia (e-mail: anﬁ [email protected]); and ÁLVARO CAMPOS VILLAN- UEVA, Estación de Biología Los Tuxtlas, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Km 30 Carretera Catemaco-Montepío, San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz, México A.P. 94957001.

LIOPHIS VITTI (NCN). DIET. The colubrid snake Liophis vitti is known from the western Andean slopes in northern Ec- uador at elevations between 1070–1650 m (Dixon 2000. Copeia 2000:482–490). A specimen collected “one meter high on leaf in forest at night” is all the natural history data available in the literature for this species (Dixon, op. cit.). On 24 February 2009, FIG. 1. Leptodeira septentrionalis swallowing a Leptodactylus bolivi- we collected a male L. vitti (QCAZ 8708, SVL = 368 mm, TL = anus. 110 mm) in northwestern Ecuador, Carchi Province, Chilmá Bajo (0.8647222°N, 78.0497222°W, 2071 m elev.). This specimen had Submitted by DAVID MATTHIAS DEHLING, Department of recently eaten, as indicated by an anterior swelling at about one Ecology, Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-University fourth its SVL. The forced-out prey was a specimen of an unde- Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, D-35032 Marburg, Germany; scribed species of the bufonid toad Osornophryne (QCAZ 40028, e-mail: [email protected] SVL = 30.4 mm). No records of Osornophryne are known from this locality. Moreover, this is the ﬁ rst record of predation of Os- ornophryne by any vertebrate. Both specimens are deposited in the

356 Herpetological Review 40(3), 2009 herpetological collection of Museo de Zoología QCAZ, Pontifi cia cordyline (153.3 mm total length). The cause of death of the Universidad Católica del Ecuador. snake is unknown. This is the fi rst report of predation of P. cordyline by O. clathratus. Both specimens are deposited in the Submitted by OMAR TORRES-CARVAJAL (e-mail: herpetological collection of the Universidade Federal do Estado [email protected]), JUAN M. GUAYASAMIN, ELICIO do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the accession numbers ZUFRJ TAPIA, and SILVIA ALDÁS, Escuela de Biología, Pontifi cia 1650 (Oxyrhopus clathratus) and 1651 (Placosoma cordyline). Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Apartado Postal 17-01-2184, We thank Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Quito, Ecuador. for transport logistics, and Henrique C. Costa and Paulo Sérgio Bernarde for suggestions on the manuscript.

MASTIGODRYAS MELANOLOMUS (NCN). PREY. Informa- Submitted by VICTOR G. DILL ORRICO, Departamento tion on the trophic ecology and individual prey species of certain de Zoologia, UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de tropical snakes is scarce. Mastigodryas melanolomus is a moder- Mesquita Filho, Av. 24-A, num 744, Bela Vista, Departamento de ately-sized colubrid snake that forages on the ground and preys on Zoologia, I.B.; Cx. P. 199, CEP: 13506-900 - Rio Claro, SP – Brazil lizards, small snakes, reptile eggs, nesting birds, and small mam- (e-mail: [email protected]); and PAULO NOGUEIRA DA mals (Savage 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: COSTA,. Laboratório de Anfíbios e Répteis - Universidade Federal A Herpetofauna Between Two Continents, Between Two Seas. do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Zoologia, Caixa Postal 68.044, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 994 pp.). On 14 October CEP 21944-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil (e-mail: nogpj@yahoo. 2004 at 1530 h, in the Reserva Biológica Hitoy Cerere (Costa Rica, com.br). Limón Province, 9.66°N, 83.03°W, ca. 200 m elev.), I observed a M. melanolomus with a total length of about 1.2 m that had entered a hole in the ground up to about the anterior third of its body. When OXYRHOPUS GUIBEI (False Coralsnake). DIET. Oxyrhopus it reappeared, it was holding an adult Ameiva festiva in its mouth guibei is a terrestrial, crepuscular-nocturnal pseudoboine snake (Fig. 1). Although M. melanolomus is known to prey on other spe- in southeastern Brazil (Sazima and Abe 1991. Stud. Neotr. Fauna cies of Ameiva (Seib 1984. J. Herpetol. 18:412–420), A. festiva has Environ. 26:159–164). Reported prey items include rodents, liz- not yet been reported as a prey item of M. melanolomus. ards (Andrade and Silvano 1996. Rev. Bras. Zool. 13[1]:143–150; França et al. 2008. Copeia 2008:23–38), and birds (Sazima and Abe 1991. Stud. Neotr. Fauna Environ. 26:159–164). We dissected 17 specimens of O. guibei from the vicinity of the Irapé Power Plant (16.75°S; 42.53°W), Minas Gerais state, Brazil, collected between February 2004 and July 2006 during a faunal monitoring program. We found 10 prey items in the stomachs of three males (total length: 404, 629, and 811 mm), two females (total length: 599 and 1016 mm), and three juveniles (total length: 289, 306, and 363 mm). Prey consisted of rodents (70%) and lizards (30%). Nonetheless, one adult female O. guibei (1016 mm total length) had digested parts of an individual Oxymycte- rus sp. (Cricetidae) in its stomach. This snake also contained 10 vitellogenic follicles (> 10 mm, following Pizzatto and Marques 2002. Amphibia-Reptilia 4:495–504). Rodents of the genus Oxy- mycterus have semi-fossorial habits and are endemic to South America (Hershkovitz 1994. Fieldiana Zool. 79:1–43; Câmara and Murta 2003. Mamíferos da Serra do Cipó. Ed. PUC Minas. FIG. 1. Mastigodryas melanolomus preying on Ameiva festiva. Belo Horizonte. 129 pp.). The rodent body parts had a volume of 5478.7 mm3 and seemed derived from an adult individual. To Submitted by DAVID MATTHIAS DEHLING, Department of our knowledge this is the fi rst record of the semi-fossorial rodent Ecology, Animal Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-University Oxymycterus as a food item of O. guibei. Furthermore, another Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, D-35032 Marburg, Germany; two species of rodents belonging to the Cricetidae family were e-mail: [email protected]. found: four Necromys lasiurus in three specimens and two Calo- mys tener in one. Three unidentifi ed tails of lizards were found in three juvenile specimens. OXYRHOPUS CLATHRATUS (NCN) PREY. Species of Representative specimens are deposited in the Herpetological Oxyrhopus are known to prey on small lizards (Bernarde and Laboratory of Museu de Ciências Naturais of Pontifícia Universi- Machado 2000. Herpetol. Rev. 31:247–248.). On 2 September dade Católica de Minas, Minas Gerais, Brazil (MCNR 915, 1718, 2004, during fi eldwork in Teresópolis municipality, Rio de 1847, 1923, 2511). We thank Sônia A. Talamoni for identifying Janeiro State, southeastern Brazil (22.448442°S, 42.983542°W), the rodents and FAPEMIG for fi nancial support to LBN. we collected a recently deceased juvenile Oxyrhopus clathratus (312 mm total length), that contained an adult Placosoma

Herpetological Review 40(3), 2009 357 ISSN 0018-084X The Ofﬁ cial News-Journal of the Herpetological Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Review Volume 40, Number 3 September 2009 ARTICLES The Taxonomic Status of the Inornate (Unstriped) and Ornate (Striped) Whiptail Lizards (Aspidoscelis inornata [Baird]) from Coahuila and Nuevo León, México ...... by J. M. WALKER, J. R. DIXON, R. W. AXTELL, AND J. E. CORDES 276

Discovery of a Surviving Population of the Montane Streamside Frog Craugastor milesi (Schmidt) .....by J. E. KOLBY AND J. R. MCCRANIE 282 Observations on the Ecology of Trachemys adiutrix and Kinosternon scorpioides on Curupu Island, Brazil ...... by L. BARRETO, L. C. LIMA, AND S. BARBOSA 283

Foraging Ecology of Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata) in Ontario, Canada ...... by M. L. RASMUSSEN, J. E. PATERSON, AND J. D. LITZGUS 286

Herpetofaunal Conservation in the Rainforest: Perceptions of Ecotourists ...... by T. M. DOAN 289 Distribution and Natural History Notes on Some Poorly Known Frogs and Snakes from Peninsular Malaysia ...... by CHAN K. O AND NORHAYATI A. 294 On the Distribution and Status of Plectrohyla hazelae (Taylor, 1940) (Amphibia: Hylidae) from Oaxaca, Mexico ...... by J. R. MENDELSON III AND E. K. KABAY 301

One Hundred and One New County Records for Alabama Amphibians and Reptiles ...... by S. P. GRAHAM AND COLLEAGUES 367 TECHNIQUES A Method for Constructing an Adjustable Platform to Obtain Lateral Photographs of Larval Anurans ...... by M. C. SCHACHT AND L. D. MCBRAYER 303 Baiting Differentially Inﬂ uences Capture Rates of Large Aquatic Salamanders, Siren and Amphiuma ...... by C. P. SMITH, D. R. GREGOIRE, AND M. S. GUNZBURGER 304 AMPHIBIAN DISEASES Reassessment of the Historical Timeline for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Presence in Honduras and Conservation Implications for Plectrohyla dasypus ...... by J. E. KOLBY AND G. E. PADGETT-FLOHR 307 Local and Regional Patterns of Amphibian Chytrid Prevalence on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica ...... by C. S. GOLDBERG, T. J. HAWLEY, AND L. P. WAITS 309 Occurrence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in an Anuran Community in the Southeastern Talamanca Region of Costa Rica ...... by D. SAENZ, C. K. ADAMS, J. B. PIERCE, AND D. LAURENCIO 311

Detecting Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the Wild When Amphibians Are Absent ...... by J. G. WIXSON AND K. B. ROGERS 313

First Report of Ranavirus Infecting Lungless Salamanders ...... by M. J. GRAY, D. L. MILLER, AND J. T. HOVERMAN 316

Amphibian Chytrid Fungus in Western Toads (Anaxyrus boreas) in British Columbia and Yukon, Canada ...... by B. G. SLOUGH 319 Chytridiomycosis-Associated Mortality in Rana palustris Collected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA ...... by M. TODD-THOMPSON, D. L. MILLER, P. E. SUPER, AND M. J. GRAY 321 HERPETOLOGICAL HUSBANDRY Nutrient Composition of Whole Crayﬁ sh (Orconectes and Procambarus Species) Consumed by Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) ...... by E. S. DIERENFELD, K. J. MCGRAW, K. FIRTSCHE, J. T. BRIGGLER, AND J. ETTLING 324 BOOK REVIEWS Lizard Ecology: The Evolutionary Consequences of Foraging Mode ...... reviewed by B. A. GOODMAN 371

Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Amphibians ...... reviewed by D. C. BLACKBURN 374

Frogs and Toads of the Southeast ...... reviewed by J. C. BEANE 376

Urban Herpetology ...... reviewed by T. W. J. GARNER 377

SSAR BUSINESS ...... 257 NEWSNOTES ...... 259

MEETINGS ...... 259 CURRENT RESEARCH ...... 260 ZOO VIEW ...... 263 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ...... 273 NATURAL HISTORY NOTES ...... 330 GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION ...... 359