A New Southern-Most Record of the Sonoran Coralsnake, Micruroides Euryxanthus Kennicott, 1860, (Squamata: Elapidae) from the State of Jalisco, Mexico

Herpetology Notes, volume 12: 681-683 (2019) (published online on 30 June 2019)

A new southern-most record of the Sonoran Coralsnake, Micruroides euryxanthus Kennicott, 1860, (Squamata: Elapidae) from the state of Jalisco, Mexico

Aldo Dávalos-Martínez1,*, Daniel Cruz-Sáenz1,2, Jorge A. Najar-Sánchez1, and Francisco J. Muñoz-Nolasco1,3

The New World coralsnakes are currently composed Herein we present a new record of Micruroides of two genera: Micrurus and Micruroides (Campbell euryxanthus for the state of Jalisco, in western Mexico. and Lamar, 2004). Micruroides is a monotypic genus On 4 March 2017, while conducting diurnal fieldwork that differs from the other New World coralsnakes in in the surroundings of Cocula, in central Jalisco (5 km having a single pair of gular shields, separated prefrontal SW of Cocula, municipality of Cocula, Jalisco; 20.3421, bones, a red ring that follows the pale nuchal ring, and -103.8305, WGS-84; 1399 m), we found an adult the presence of solid maxillary teeth situated posterior Micruroides euryxanthus (CEZUG-R394; Fig. 1). The to the fangs (Roze, 1974; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; snake was found dead on a hillside covered by tropical Meik et al., 2007). deciduous forest with secondary vegetation. The body The Sonoran Coralsnake, Micruroides euryxanthus showed two injuries in the posterior region of the body; (Kennicott, 1860), is the only species in the genus, and since there are no vehicle-accessible roads on this and is distributed in Arizona and New Mexico, in hill, we assume that the snake was probably trampled the southwestern United States, southward into upon by one of the cows that graze in the area. northwestern and western México, in the Mexican states The specimen, an adult female, measures 368.4 mm of Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, and Jalisco snout-vent length (SVL) and 22.9 mm tail length. Its (Roze, 1974; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Woolrich- colour pattern consists of 15 black body rings that are Piña et al., 2016, Bezy et al., 2017; Cruz-Sáenz et al., 5–7 dorsal scales in length plus two black tail rings; 2017; Ahumada-Carrillo et al., 2018). Three subspecies a pale nuchal ring 2–3 scales in length that does not are currently known on the basis of lepidosis and colour extend onto the parietals; pale body rings 1.5 scales pattern (Campbell and Lamar, 2004): M. euryxanthus in length; 15 red body rings, and a total of 106 red euryxanthus Kennicott, 1860, M. euryxanthus australis scales along the middorsal line of the body. Although Zweifel and Norris, 1955, and M. euryxanthus neglectus Roze, 1967.

1 Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias. Km 15.5 Carretera Guadalajara- Nogales, Predio Las Agujas, Zapopan, Jalisco, 1-1919, México. 2 Centro de Estudios en Zoología, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Zapopan, Jalisco, 1-1919, México. 3 Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Herpetología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, 70515, México. * Corresponding author. E-mail: Figure 1. Micruroides euryxanthus (CEZUG-R394) collected [email protected] in the municipality of Cocula, state of Jalisco, Mexico. 682 Aldo Dávalos-Martínez et al.

Figure 2. Localities of Micruroides euryxanthus in Jalisco, Mexico.

the specimen’s injuries on the ventral region of the from Jalisco (Cruz-Sáenz et al., 2008; Ahumada-Carrillo body made counting scales difficult, after a thorough et al., 2018) were from the Sierra Madre Occidental. examination, we counted approximately 232 ventrals The specimen has been deposited in the vertebrate and 20 subcaudals. These morphological characteristics collection of the Centro de Estudios en Zoología of the correspond to Micruroides euryxanthus neglectus Universidad de Guadalajara (CEZUG-R394), under (Roze, 1967; UMMZ-114637 and J.F.C. 62-65) and are collection permit SGPA/DGVS/01205/17, granted to consistent with the more recently found specimens of Fausto R. Méndez de la Cruz by the Secretaria de Medio this subspecies described by Meik et al (2007; MZFC Ambiente y Recursos Naturales. The identification was 19683) and Ahumada-Carrillo et al. (2018; ECO-CH- verified using the keys in Campbell and Lamar (2004) H-3991). The higher number of black body rings (15) and the descriptions provided by Roze (1967; 1974). of CEZUG-R394 is similar to ECO-CH-H-3991 (16), whereas this number is lower (12–13) in the rest of the Acknowledgments. We thank Carlos A. Guzmán Hernández for known specimens. his support in the fieldwork, Fausto R. Méndez de la Cruz for This record extends the known distribution of providing the collection permit, and Robert L. Bezy for reviewing Micruroides euryxanthus 81 km SW from the nearest the manuscript. published locality, Techaluta de Montenegro, in the municipality of San Cristobal de la Barranca (Cruz- References Sáenz et al., 2008), and 195 km SE from the other Ahumada-Carrillo, I.T., Carbajal-Márquez, R.A., López-Cuellar, published locality in Jalisco, San Miguel Huaxtita, in M.A., Weatherman, G.N. (2018): The Sonoran Coralsnake, the municipality of Mezquitic (Ahumada-Carrillo et al., Micruroides euryxanthus (Kennicott, 1860), in the state of 2018). This is the southernmost record of the species Jalisco, Mexico. Mesoamerican Herpetology 5: 185–188. and is the third published locality in the Jalisco state, Bezy, R.L., Rosen, P.C., Van Devender, T.R., Enderson, E.F. (2017): Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert in western Mexico (Fig. 2). It is worth mentioning herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico. that, according to the physiographic regionalization Mesoamerican Herpetology 4: 138–167. proposed by Cruz-Sáenz et al (2017), our record lies in Campbell, J.A., Lamar, W.W. (2004): The Venomous Reptiles of the western limit of the Central Plateau of the Trans- the Western Hemisphere. 1st Edition. New York, USA, Comstock Mexican Volcanic Belt, while the two previous records Pub. Associates. A new southern-most record of the Sonoran Coralsnake from Mexico 683

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Accepted by Andrew Durso