WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSIRCF REPTILES • VOL15, &NO AMPHIBIANS 4 • DEC 2008 189 • 27(1):71–72 • APR 2020 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES First. Chasing Bullsnakes Record (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: of Dicephalism in the On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . TheBanded Shared History of Treeboas (CorallusKukri, grenadensis) and Humans Oligodon on Grenada: arnensis A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCH ARTICLES(Shaw 1802), from Nepal . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The KnightKamal Anole Devkota (Anolis equestris1,2, Santa) in Florida Bahadur Magar3, Van Wallach4, and David Wojnowski2,5 .............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 1Nepal Toxinology Association, Kawasoti, Nawalpur, Nepal ([email protected]) CONSERVATION2Save ALERT The Snakes, 2929 35th St #5402, Sacramento, California 95817, USA . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...............................................................................................................................3Chitwan National Park, Kasara, Chitwan, Nepal .............................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...............................................................................................................................44 Potter Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA ....................................... 223 5Department of Early Childhood. The “Dow and Jones Elementary Index” of Biodiversity Education, ............................................................................................................................... College of Education & Human Development, Georgia State University,............ Atl 225anta, Georgia 30303, USA HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 he latest tabulationPROFILE of verified cases of axial bifurcation behavior. According to them, the snake was having difficulty . Tin snakes lists 2,007Kraig cases,Adler: A Lifetimeincluding Promoting 221 Herpetology species ................................................................................................ in 114 crawling smoothly and movedMichael L. Tregliavery slowly.234 This is a normal genera; if one includesCOMMENTARY anecdotal reports the total number condition for newborn dicephalic snakes because each head of cases rises to 2,071. The (V. Turtles Wallach, Have Been Watching unpubl. Me ........................................................................................................................ data). A total is independent of the other Ericand Gangloff each 238has its own mind about of 600 cases of dicephalismBOOK REVIEW have been documented in the where to go, resulting in a jerky back-and-forth struggle to family Colubridae (sensu. Threatened lato Amphibians; V. Wallach, of the World unpubl. edited by S.N. data), Stuart, M. Hoffmann,control J.S. the Chanson, body. N.A. The Cox, inability to crawl normally in a coor- including two species ofR. OligodonBerridge, P. Ramani, from and B.E.Thailand: Young .............................................................................................................. O. joyn- dinated manner inevitably willRobert Powellresult 243 in the animal’s death as soni (Nutphand 1998) CONSERVATION and O. barroni RESEARCH (D. Sweerland REPORTS: Summaries 1999, of Publishedit cannot Conservation successfully Research Reports escape ................................. predators 245 or capture food. The unpubl. data). Herein NATURAL we report HISTORY the first RESEARCH case of REPORTS dicephalism: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 in the Banded Kukri NEWBRIEFS(Oligodon ...............................................................................................................................arnensis). ....................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 Dicephalic snakes FOCUS rarely ON survive CONSERVATION long in : nature A Project (Wallach You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252 2018). So, as with all individuals captured in the wild, the snake in question is a recently hatched proarchodichotomous neonate (Fig. 1) with two long necks that are united at the anterior quarter of the body. The junctionFront Cover. of Shannon the twoPlummer. necks Back Cover. Michael Kern with the body exhibits a smooth transitionTotat et velleseque and lacks audant the mo nor- Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil mally seen enlargement or kinking oferspienimus, the spine. quos Theaccullabo. left Ilibus neck erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus is slightly longer than the right, constitutingaut dolor apicto 26.5% invere pe dolumof SVL aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque (or 22% of total length), whereas themoditia right erere neck nonsedis is ma25.4% sectiatur of moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- SVL (or 21% of total length) (percentagesma derrovitae are voluptam, based ason quos mea - tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. surements from Fig. 1 and utilize a mean relative tail length ratio of 16.5%, fide De et al. 2018). This suggests that the left neck has 1 or 2 more vertebrae than the right neck. This dicephalic Banded Kukri was captured by local villagers in October 2018 near Daldale, Devchuli Municipality, Nawalpur District, Gandaki Province, Nepal (27°40'15.81"N, 84°11'48.90"E; elev. 177 m asl). According to park rangers from Kasara, Chitwan National Park (Santa Bahadur Magar and Amrita Pudasaini), local people were car- rying the snake from Nawalpur to Kathmandu. The snake was rescued by police officers and transferred to the park rangers, who subsequently released it into natural habitat. Fig. 1. A neonatal dicephalic Banded Kukri (Oligodon arnensis) from During the release, team members were able to observe its Nepal. Photograph provided by Kasara, Chitwan National Park. Copyright © 2020. Kamal Devkota. All rights reserved. 71 IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324 DEVKOTA ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 27(1):71–72 • APR 2020 only chance for survival of two-headed snakes is to live in Tamang and Bimal Pariyar for providing us detailed infor- captivity. Because the living individual was released, we were mation of the species without which this study would not unable to acquire any detailed information. However, digital have been possible. The first author also thanks The Rufford voucher images were deposited in Lee Kong Chain Natural Foundation, UK, for funding fieldwork (Project numbers: History Museum, National University of Singapore (cat. no. 19206-1 and 23145-2) while working a “Save Snakes Save ZRC(IMG) 2.422a,b). Nature” project in Nepal, during which the information pre- Two previous reports documented two-headed snakes sented in this note was found. We also thank the Natural from Nepal. Mishra and Shah (1983) described a juvenile History Museum of Nepal and Save The Snakes. We are Checkered Keelback (Fowlea piscator), which was deposited in thankful to the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation the Natural History Museum of Nepal. Devkota et al. (2020) and Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation reported a neonatal Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus), with (DNPWC), Babarmahal, Kathmandu for granting permis- digital voucher images deposited in Lee Kong Chain Natural sion to conduct this study. History Museum, National University of Singapore (cat. no. ZRC(IMG) 2.407a,b). This most recent addition to the list Literature Cited De, P., S. Bkahat, and A.K. Sinha. 2018. Redescription of Oligodon arnensis, Shaw, of two-headed snakes represents the first documented case 1802 (Reptilia: Colubridae) collected from Birbhum, West Bengal, India. of dicephalism in Oligodon arnensis worldwide and the third Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biological Research 6(1): 42–47. record of dicephalism from Nepal. Devkota, K., A. Ghimire, C. Thapamagar, V. Wallach, and D. Wojnowski. 2020. First record of dicephalism in the Common Krait, Bungarus caeruleus (Schneider 1801), from Nepal. Reptiles & Amphibians 26: 226–229. Acknowledgements Mishra, P.N. and K.B. Shah. 1983. Notes on two headed snake. Journal of Natural We thank Ranger Amrita Pudasaini and Gamescout Gam History Museum 7: 101–103 Bahadur Ghalan from Kasara, Chitwan National Park; Dr. Nutphand, W. 1998. Two-headed snakes. Bulletin of the Thai Zoological Center, Bangkok 3(11):111–124 (in Thai). Chhabilal Thapa Magar and Dr. Amod Ghimire from Nepal Wallach, V. 2018. Axial bifurcation and duplication in snakes. Part VI. A 10-year Toxinology Association, Kawasoti, Nawalpur; and Sunil update on authentic cases. Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 53: 1–20. 72.