Cfreptiles & Amphibians
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WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSIRCF REPTILES • VOL15, &NO AMPHIBIANS 4 • DEC 2008 189 • 24(1):47–50 • APR 2017 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES First Notes. Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophison catenifer Reproduction sayi) in Wisconsin: of Cuban Snakes 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: in the EndemicA Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................ Genus Arrhyton GüntherRobert W. Henderson 198 1858 RESEARCH ARTICLES(Squamata: Dipsadidae) . 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 Florida 1 2 .............................................SeriochaBrian J. Camposano, Amaro-Valdés Kenneth L. Krysko, and KevinErnesto M. Enge, Morell-Savall Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 1Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Carretera de Varona, # 11835, / Oriente y Lindero, Reparto Parajón, Municipio Boyeros, CONSERVATION ALERT La Habana 19, CP 11900, Cuba ([email protected]) . 2ReservaWorld’s MammalsFlorística in Manejada Crisis ............................................................................................................................... “Sabanas de Santa Clara,” Empresa Nacional para la Protección.............................. de la Flora y la Fauna, 220 . More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 Villa Clara, CP 50100, Cuba ([email protected]) . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY Photographs by the senior author. Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 PROFILE . Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234 he genus Arrhyton Günther 1858 is endemic to Cuba T(Hedges et al.COMMENTARY 2009; Zaher et al. 2009). Five of the eight currently recognized. The Turtles species Have Been (62.5%) Watching Me ........................................................................................................................have restricted Eric Gangloff 238 geographical distributionsBOOK REVIEW and have been listed as threat- ened according to IUCN. Threatened Red Amphibians List categories of the World edited (IUCN-SSC by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, 2012). Principal threatsR. areBerridge, habitat P. Ramani, fragmentation and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. and loss Robert Powell 243 (Rodríguez and Chamizo CONSERVATION 2000; Amaro RESEARCH 2012a, REPORTS: b, c, d,Summaries e, f). of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 The other three species NATURAL have HISTORY wider RESEARCHdistributions REPORTS and: Summariescur- of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 rently are of least concern. EDITORIAL Two INFORMATION of these (Fig. ............................................................................................................................... 1), the Cuban ...................... 251 Short-tailed Racerlet, FOCUS Arrhyton ON CONSERVATION vittatum (Gundlach: A Project and You PetersCan Support ............................................................................................... 252 1862), and the Broad-striped Racerlet, A. taeniatum Günther 1858, the latter the largest species in the genus (Henderson and Powell 2009), are the subjects of this study. Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Arrhyton vittatum has a disjunct distribution across much Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo of Cuba (absent only from the provincesestibus inveliquo of Guantánamo,velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil Santiago de Cuba, and Granma) erspienimus,and Isla quos de accullabo. la Juventud Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum (Schwartz and Garrido 1981; Amarofugiatis 2005). maionsequat Reports eumque of local- fugiatis maionsequat eumque ity records in southeastern Cuba (Schmidtmoditia erere 1920; nonsedis Alayo ma sectiatur 1951; moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- Rodríguez et al. 2013) were misidentifications.ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. Arrhyton tae- niatum also has a broad and disjunct distribution on Cuba and occurs on Isla de la Juventud plus the Cayos Coco and Sabinal in the Camagüey Archipelago (Schwartz and Garrido 1981; Estrada 1993, 2012; Amaro 2005). Barbour and Ramsden (1919) estimated that A. vittatum was somewhat more abundant than A. taeniatum, a contention supported by the greater abundance of the former in zoological collections (Schwartz and Garrido 1981; Rodríguez et al. 2014). Little is known about the snakes of this genus, even those with a wider geographical distribution. This is largely attributable to infrequent observations due to their nocturnal Fig. 1. Adult Short-tailed Racerlet (Arrhyton vittatum; top), collected in and semifossorial habits. Essentially nothing is known about Habana del Este, La Habana Province, Cuba, in captivity; adult Broad- striped Racerlet (Arrhyton taeniatum; bottom), collected in La Movida, reproduction (Barbour and Ramsden 1919; Grant et al. Protected Area Sabanas de Santa Clara, Villa Clara Province, Cuba, in 1959; Schwartz and Garrido 1981; Schwartz and Henderson captivity. Copyright © 2017. Seriocha Amaro-Valdés. All rights reserved. 47 AMARO-VALDÉS AND MORELL-SAVALL IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 24(1):47–50 • APR 2017 1991; Amaro 2005; Henderson and Powell 2009). Published information on some aspects of the reproductive biology of Arrhyton in Cuba (Domínguez and Moreno 2003) was based largely on data pertaining to the Puerto Rican Racerlet (Magliophis stahli), which had previously been assigned to the genus Arrhyton (e.g., Schwartz and Henderson 1991; Rivero 1998). On 5 April 2008, a female Arrhyton vittatum was col- lected in a patch of natural vegetation in the Parque Zoológico Nacional de Cuba (PZNC, 23°02’03”N, 82°23’09”W), Boyeros Municipality, La Habana Province. On 3 May and 3 June 2008, two gravid female A. vittatum were collected at the Reserva Florística Manejada “Sabanas de Santa Clara” (RFMSS, 22°24’12”N, 79°57’07”W), Santa Clara Municipality, Villa Clara Province. All were housed in glass terraria 40 x 20 x 30 cm (females RFMSS) with a substrate of serpentine derived soil and 59.5 x 30.4 x 30.8 cm (female PZNC) with common brown soil. Substrates were occasionally moistened during the night. Water was provided ad libitum. The females from the Protected Area Sabanas de Santa Clara each laid three eggs on 1 June and 29 June 2008, 28 Fig. 2. Fertile egg of a Short-tailed Racerlet (Arrhyton vittatum; from and 26 days respectively after the collection date. The female female No. 3, Table 1) in incubation; insert: close-up view of the same egg showing ornamentation. from the zoo laid two eggs on 18 August 2008, four months and 13 days after the collection date; consequently, although we cannot rule out the possibility of sperm storage, we assume Eggs laid by females from the protected area Sabanas de that copulation (not observed) occurred in captivity since this Santa Clara were incubated in the terrarium (substrate: serpen- female, was kept with some conspecifics for several weeks tine derived soil) where the females were housed. Eggs laid by immediately after collection. the female from the zoo were incubated in Petri dishes (diame- All A. vittatum eggs were entirely white, ellipsoidal, and ter 150 mm, depth 20 mm) with occasionally-moistened river covered entirely with small projections. All were laid sepa- sand as the incubation substrate (Fig. 2). In both instances, rately, not in clusters or adherent as has been described for eggs were incubated at ambient temperature (~28 °C). other species of the tribe Alsophiini (Novo and Arazoza We measured only the two eggs laid by the female from 1986; Rivero 1998; Fong and Garcés 2002; Fong 2004; the zoo (Stainless Steel Vernier Caliper to the nearest 0.1 Arango 2009; Rodríguez-Cabrera et al. 2015). We presume mm) and weighed (Portable Electronic Balance to the near- that, unlike other Cuban dipsadids, Cubophis cantherigerus est 0.01 g) a few hours after they were laid. The eggs were and Caraiba andreae (Novo and Arazoza 1986; Rodríguez- 18.8 x 8.0 mm and 19.5 x 7.9 mm and both weighed 0.7 g. Cabrera et al. 2015), the number of eggs laid by females of Five weeks after deposition, the second egg increased in size