Breeding Habits of Farancia abacura in Captivity

Abstract

COMPLETE records of the breeding habits of snakes are comparatively rare. (See Wood; COPEIA, 2, 1933.) The following report of the mating of a pair of mud snakes, Farancia abacura, with the subsequent egg-laying and hatching of the young seems to be the first case recorded for this species. An attempt to hatch a clutch of eggs of Farancia was reported last year by the writer (COPEIA, 4, 1935) but this was unsuccessful as the only fertile egg was perforated by insects before reaching maturity. The female of the mating pair (not the same one that laid the eggs last year), which was captured in the spring of 1935, measured one inch short of six feet and weighed 4 lbs. 10 oz. at the time of the mating. The male, captured early in June of this year, was much smaller, measuring 42 inches and weighing only 1 lb. 10 oz. These snakes, together with several others of the same species, were housed in an outdoor cage about six feet square in which there was a shallow pool covering about one-half of the cage, the remainder of the area being concrete. All the specimens fed readily on the tailed amphibian (Amphiuma tridactylum) in the manner previously reported (COPEIA, 2, 1934). The mating was first observed about 7 A.M. on July 11. The paired snakes were then in the water but they moved onto the concrete soon afterward where they remained coupled throughout the day. During much of this time the female was in a loose coil with the male in a fairly straight line at right angles to the posterior part of her body. The other snakes in the cage showed no interest in the mating. At 10:30 r.M., the snakes, observed with a flashlight, were again in the water still coupled but the following morning they had separated and no further inclination to mate was noted. There were no courtship activities seen on the days previous to the mating although the occupants of the cage were under frequent observation. The writer was absent on a trip at the time of the egg-laying but preparations had been made to have the data recorded and the eggs taken care of. Thanks are due Mr. Henry G. Gerstner, of Gramercy, for his careful observations as well as for the excellent photographs which he took, one of which accompanies this article. The first egg was laid at about 7 A.M. on September 5, just eight weeks from the date of the mating. The deposition continued intermittently until about 1:30 P.M., when twenty-eight had been laid in all. The eggs were cream-white elongated spheroids, smooth, non-adhesive, regular in size and shape, the diameter varying from 1%' to 15%6 of an inch and length from 158 inches to 1 7 inches. The shells, which were flexible and leathery, were marked with numerous small brown rod-like flecks in groups of two and three and lying parallel to the elongated axis. The photograph shows the snake and eggs just after the last laying. It seemed evident to the observers that an attempt was being made by the snake to keep the eggs within the coils of her body as they were laid but whether this was for the purpose of incubating them or merely to hold them in a close group could not be determined. A heavy rain was threatening and as the floor of the cage was concrete it was feared that the force of the