Culebra de cogulla argelina – Macroprotodon cucullatus (Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 1827)

Reptiles - Orden Squamata - Familia Colubridae en la Enciclopedia Virtual de Vertebrados Españoles, http://www.vertebradosibericos.org/.A comprehensive review of the natural history of the Algerian False Smooth Snake Macroprotodon cucullatus in Spain.Peer reviewe

Loss of largest and oldest individuals of the Montpellier snake correlates with recent warming in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula

The effects of climate change on organisms are now being extensively studied in many different taxa. However, the variation in body size, usually shrinkage in response to increasing temperature, has received little attention regarding to reptiles. During past periods of global warming, many organisms shrank in size, and current evidence and experiments manipulating temperature have shown a biomass decrease in some organisms with increasing temperatures. Here we test whether the body size of the Montpellier snake Malpolon monspessulanus from the southeastern Iberian Peninsula is changing and correlated with the increasing temperature in this region during a 39year period (1976–2014). We measured the snout–vent length (SVL) of vouchers in scientific collections to check for trends in adult body size at the population level in relation with temperature, while controlling for the age of the individuals (estimated by skeletochronology, n¼141). Given the great ontogenetic variation in body size of the study species, we categorized age in 3 classes: “young adults” (under 5 years old), “intermediate adults” (from 5 to 7 years old), and “old adults” (from 8 to 14 years old). By means of linear mixed models, we found a negative relationship between SVL of “old adults” and average annual temperature in the region during the lifetime of each individual. Our results indicate that largest and oldest individuals of the Montpellier Snake, that is, males because of strong sexual size dimorphism in this species, disappeared from the study population, and suggest that it occurred in response to rising environmental temperature.Junta de Andalucía RNM-25

Culebra bastarda – Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann, 1804)

Reptiles - Orden Squamata - Familia Lamprophiidae en la Enciclopedia Virtual de Vertebrados Españoles, http://www.vertebradosibericos.org/. Versiones anteriores: 23-10-2003; 11-11-2003; 20-12-2006; 29-08-2008; 19-11-2009; 2-10-2015; 2017-01-13.A comprehensive review of the natural history of the Montpellier Snake Malpolon monspessulanus in Spain.Peer reviewe

El papel del Estrecho de Gibraltar en la conformación de la actual fauna de anfibios y reptiles en el Mediterráneo Occidental

Peer reviewe

Cannibalism in Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata)

Letter.JC had a postdoctoral contract jointly financed by the ESF and by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM, Spain), in the framework of the Operational Programme FSE 2007–2013.Peer Reviewe

The fall of a symbol? A high predation rate by the introduced horseshoe whip snake Hemorrhois hippocrepis paints a bleak future for the endemic Ibiza wall lizard Podarcis pityusensis

Invasive species currently account for a major threat to global biodiversity, and island ecosystems are among the most vulnerable, because of the frequency and success of species introductions on islands. Within Mediterranean islands, reptiles not only are frequently introduced species but are also among the most threatened because of these introductions. The Balearic archipelago is a good example of this, since only two of its current 16 species of reptiles are native. Thirteen years ago, the snake Hemorrhois hippocrepis was introduced by cargo in Ibiza island, and it is in expansion. Individuals obtained from an early eradication campaign showed a fast expression of phenotypic plasticity and acquired larger sizes than those of the source population, probably due to a high prey availability and predator scarcity. The species is thriving at the expense of a small variety of native and non-native prey, but the predation pressure on the endemic Podarcis pityusensis, the only native reptile in the island, is very high, as this lizard represents 56% of the prey in frequency, which might threaten its survival on the long term. Our results on the feeding ecology of the snake are of sufficient concern to justify the maintenance of actions to eradicate this invader.Peer reviewe

Estatus de Coronella austriaca en Sierra Nevada (SE Península Ibérica)

Peer Reviewe

Conclusiones y propuesta de gestión de las poblaciones y especies de anfibios y reptiles alóctonos en España

Peer reviewe

Síntesis de las introducciones de anfibios y reptiles en España

Xavier Santos et al.Peer reviewe