Vine Snake Research Articles

Oxybelis boulengeri Procter, a Valid Species of Vine Snake from South America

Oxybelis boulengeri Procter, a Valid Species of Vine Snake from South America

Cryptic Movement in the Vine Snake Oxybelis aeneus

Cryptic Movement in the Vine Snake Oxybelis aeneus

Trophic Relationships and Foraging Strategies of some New World Tree Snakes (Leptophis, Oxybelis, Uromacer)

AbstractTrophic relationships and foraging strategies are examined in two New World arboreal, diurnal, snake communities: Leptophis mexicanus, Oxybelis aeneus, and O.fulgidus from Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, and Uromacer catesbyi and U. oxyrhynchus from Isla Saona, República Dominicana. Active foragers (L. mexicanus and U. catesbyi) have similar body proportions and feed primarily on diurnally quiescent prey (hylid frogs, bird eggs). Sit-and-wait strategists (O. aeneus, O.fulgidus and U. oxyrhynchus) have similar body proportions and feed on diurnally active prey (primarily lizards). Active foragers take prey that is, on the average, larger than the prey of sit-and-wait foragers, but presumably, active foragers expend more energy in locating prey. Trophic niche breadth is widest among the active foragers and narrowest for the slender vine snakes (O. aeneus and U. oxyrhynchus). Trophic niche overlap values are low for species pairs that occur sympatrically (or syntopically) with the exception of O. aeneus-O. fulgidus, but O. fufgidus preys on a wider variety of lizard taxa, preys on birds (which are absent from the diet of O. aeneus), and takes prey items that are significantly larger in size. It seems likely that, among arboreal colubrids, the sit-and-wait foraging strategy is derived from one of active foraging.

Problems presented by geographical variation in the African vine snakes, genusThelotornis

Analysis of variation in 771 specimens of the genus Thelotornis A. Smith (Colubridae) confirms the absence of intergradation between the taxa kirtlandii (Hallowell) and oatesii (Gunther) in northern Angola and southern Zaire, so 7. capensis A. Smith is accepted as a full species. The western race 7. capensis oatesii shows very little variation, but the eastern populations of 7. capensis are extremely variable and it is convenient to revive the name mossambicanus (Bocage) for the populations which occur from central Mocambique northwards. T. c. oatesii hybridizes extensively with T. c. capensis and 7. c. mossambicanus in southeastern Rhodesia and adjacent Mocambique. Northern populations of 7. c. mossambicanus show features of 7. kirtlandii, but these are apparently primitive characters retained since the original partition of Thelotornis into western and eastern forms. The highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania isolate these northern mossambicanus from the nearest kirtlandii populations in Uganda.

Tanzanian records for vine snakes of the genus Thelotornis, with special reference to the Udzungwa Mountains

RASMUSSEN, J. B. 1997. Tanzanian records for vine snakes of the genus Thelotornis. Afr. J. Herpetol. 46(2): 137–142. Lepidosis of Tanzanian vine snakes deposited in the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen is discussed. The specimens provide additional records of the two known species of African vine snakes, Thelotomis capensis and T. kirtlandii in Tanzania. A specimen of T. kirtlandii is the largest ever caught and represents only the second record for Tanzania, with a range extension of more than 700 kilometres. The signifieance of several West African forest snakes entering Tanzania, including Boiga blandingii and Typhlops angolensis, are commented upon and the status of the northeastern population of T. c. mossambicanus, containing T. kirtlandii features, is discussed.