Oxyrhopus Petola Mating
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Information about ovarian or testicular cycles is available for several Neotropical species of snakes (Marques et al., 2009). However, descriptions about courtship, mating or combative behaviours are still scarce and most information available comes from extratropical species (Sasa and Curtis, 2006). Herein we describe the rst observation of a courtship and mating in the Calico snake Oxyrhopus petola. Oxyrhopus petola is a common colubrid snake, widely distributed throughout South America and in parts of Central America (Savage and Villa, 1986; Markezich, 2002; Lynch, 2009, Palmuti, Cassimiro and Bertoluci, 2009). However, MacCulloch et al. (2009) suggest that the wide distribution of O. petola could represent more than one species. In Brazil, it is found in different habitats like Gallery forests and Brazilian Savannah (Vaz-Silva et al., 2007), Atlantic forests (Santana et al., 2008) and Amazon forests (Bernarde and Machado, 2000). Information about its reproductive biology is scarce in the scientic literature. Lynch (2009) found in Colombia, a clutch of eight near-term eggs in October, 2006 (early spring) and describes O. petola as having a markedly seasonal reproductive pattern. Test et al. (1966) presented information about a captive female Herpetology Notes, volume 3: 139-140 (2010) (published online on 13 May 2010) Observation of mating in the Calico Snake Oxyrhopus petola Linnaeus, 1758 Rogério Loesch Zacariotti 1 *; Rodrigo del Rio do Valle 2,3 1 Laboratório de Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto Butantan. Avenida Dr. Vit al Brasil, 1500, 05503-900, São Paulo, Brazil; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Faculdade de Medicina V eterinária e Zootecnia, Departa- mento de Cirurgia, Universidade de São Paulo, A v Prof. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva, 87, 05508-270, Sao Paulo, Brasil. 3 Wildlife Management Consultoria V eterinária Ltda. *corresponding author Abstract. Oxyrhopus petola is a common colubrid snake, widely distributed throughout South America and in parts of Central America. However, information about its reproductive biology is scarce. The present communication is the rst observation of mating in Oxyrhopus petola. Keywords. Squamata, Pseudoboini, reproduction. Figure 1. Calico snakes ( Oxyrhopus petola) mating.
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Transcript of Oxyrhopus Petola Mating
8/6/2019 Oxyrhopus Petola Mating
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Rogério Loesch Zacariotti & Rodrigo del Rio do Valle140
that laid seven eggs in June, 1960 (late fall). There is
no information available in the scientic literature about
the mating behavior of O. petola.
On 31st October 2008 (mid-spring), during a
herpetofaunal survey in disturbed forest fragments
along Rio Sapucaí Mirim (20°49´E, 47°86´S),
southeastern Brazil, two adults of Oxyrhopus petola
(male 760 mm SVL, 243 mm tail length, mass 86g;
female 1050mm SVL, 277 mm tail length, mass 105g)
were captured, around 23:20, in the same locality (a dirtroad between two forest fragments), with 5 minutes
between captures. The snakes were placed together in
a plastic container for measurement and marking (PIT
tags #5709204, male and #5483245, female). As soon as
the male was in contact with female, it started to display
courtship behaviours with head and chin movements
over the female’s body. After approximately 10 minutes
of courtship, the male penetrated the female and mating
continued for at least 240 minutes (gures 1 and 2). Both
individuals were released in capture locality followingtheir observation.
We describe a mating event during mid-spring in
Brazil, but Lynch (2009) found near-term eggs in early
spring in Colombia and Test et al. (1966) observed egg
laying in captivity in late fall. This apparent asynchrony
between events of mating and egg laying found
between ourselves and other authors could be a result
of geographic differences along the wide distribution of
O. petola.
Acknowledgements. We thank Dr. Selma M. Almeida-SantosWe thank Dr. Selma M. Almeida-Santos
for comments on early version of this manuscript. We also thank
CELAN – Central Elétrica Anhanguera S. A. and WLM – Wildlife
Management Consultoria Veterinária Ltda. for nancial support.
Collecting permit was issued by Instituto Brasileiro do Meio
Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA/ permit
127/2008-SUPES/SP).
References
Bernarde, P. S., Machado, R. A. (2000): Oxyrhopus petola digita-
lis (NCN). Prey. Herpetol. Rev. 31(4): 247-248.
Lynch, J.D. (2009): Snakes of the genus Oxyrhopus (Colubridae:
Squamata) in Colombia: taxonomy and geographic variation.
Pap. Avulsos Zoo. 49(25): 319-337.
MacCulloch, R.D., Philippe, A.L., Kok, J.R., Ernst, R., Kalaman-
deen, M. (2009): The genus Oxyrhopus (Serpentes: Dipsadi-
dae: Xenodontinae) in Guyana: morphology, distributions and
comments on taxonomy. Pap. Avulsos Zoo. 49(36): 487-495.Markezich, A.L. (2002): New Distribution Records of Reptiles
from Western Venezuela. Herpetol. Rev. 33(1): 69–74.
Marques, O.A.V., Almeida-Santos, S.M., Rodrigues, M., Cam-
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Figure 2. Detail of Calico snakes (Oxyrhopus petola) mating.
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