The arboreal, nocturnal and widely distributed snake Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus (Squamata, Viperidae) is known as a generalist whose diet items have rarely been identified to species level. In this work we report three new items for its diet: an adult frog Dendropsophus marmoratus (Anura, Hylidae), an adult lizard Thecadactylus solimoensis (Squamata, Phyllodactylidae), and an adult bat Carollia brevicauda (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae), the latter being the first record of predation of a Chiropteran by this species.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Almora, Eduardo

Chávez-Arribasplata, Juan C.

Duran, Vilma

Grilli, Pablo Gervasio

Venegas, Pablo J.

Cuadernos de Herpetología

English

SEDICI - Repositorio de la UNLP

Nota
29
Author for correspondence: juancarlos.chavez@corbidi.org
New observations on diet of the South American two-striped 
forest-pitviper Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus (Hoge, 1966)
Pablo J. Venegas1, Juan C. Chávez-Arribasplata1, Eduardo Almora1, Pablo Grilli2, Vilma Duran1
1 Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI). Calle Santa Rita 105, Urb. Los Huertos de San Antonio, 
Surco, Lima 33, Perú.
2 Cátedra de Ecología General y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche. Av. Calchaquí 
6299, Florencio Varela (CP 1888) Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Cuad. herpetol. 33(1): 29-31 (2019)
The venomous snake, Bothrops bilineatus smarag-
dinus (Hoge, 1966), is widely distributed across the 
western side of the Amazon basin, encompassing 
Amazonian Colombia and southern Venezuela, 
northern and western Brazil, eastern Ecuador, Peru 
and Bolivia (Campbell and Lamar, 2004). With 
mostly nocturnal habits, it is an arboreal snake with 
preference of low forest strata and upland terra firme 
forests (Duellman, 1978; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; 
Turci et al., 2009; Valencia et al., 2016). According to 
the preys recorded by some authors, B. b. smaragdin-
us feeds on frogs, lizards, birds and rodents (Carrillo 
de Espinoza, 1983; Cunha and Nascimento, 1993; 
Martins et al., 2002; Campbell and Lamar, 2004). 
However, specific identified items in the diet of B. 
b. smaragdinus are rarely reported. Dixon and Soini 
(1986) found tree frogs Osteocephalus and Hyla (now 
Boana or Dendropsophus) in specimens from near 
Iquitos, Peru. Valencia et al. (2016) found remnants 
of Anolis fuscoauratus and rodents in the stomachs 
of Ecuadorian specimens. 
Herein, we report three new items for the diet 
of B. b. smaragdinus, and the first record of predation 
of a Chiropteran by this species. The first predation 
event was observed in February, 2007 by P. Grilli. 
In this case (Fig. 1), a juvenile of B. b. smaragdinus 
was observed swallowing an adult Dendropsophus 
marmoratus (Laurenti, 1768) at 1.4 m above the 
ground on a branch at Cashiriari (11°51’53.4” S; 
72°46’45.4” W, 588 m a.s.l.), La Convención, Cusco 
department, Peru. Both individuals, snake and frog, 
were not collected.  
For the other two records, we examined the 
stomach contents of two specimens of B. b. smaragdi-
nus from the herpetological collection of the Centro 
de Ornitologia y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI), Lima, 
Peru. In one of these, an adult male (CORBIDI 4799) 
collected in March 2008 by V. Duran at Corrientes 
river (03°03’54’’ S, 75°49’35’’ W, 2000 m a.s.l.), An-
doas, Loreto department, Peru. We found an adult 
Thecadactylus solimoensis (Bergmann and Russell, 
2007) (CORBIDI 5077). The prey’s measurements 
were: Snout-vent-length (SVL): 136 mm, Head 
Width (HW): 19.9 mm and Head length (HL): 27.8 
mm. Snake’s measurements were: SVL 510 mm, TL 
91 mm, HL 21.66 mm and HW 15.46 mm. The other 
specimen was an adult female (CORBIDI 11169), 
collected on 7 May 2012 by V. Duran at Malvinas 
(11°39’16.1’’ S; 73°1’5.8’’ W, 400 m a.s.l.), La Conven-
ción, Cusco department, Peru. Its stomach contained 
a recently swallowed adult of Carollia brevicauda. 
The bat measurements were SVL: 55 mm, HW: 9 
mm. Snake’s measurements were SVL: 657 mm, TL: 
64 mm, HW: 12.2 mm.
Recibida:  1 4  Nov i e mbre  2 0 1 7
Revisada:  2 8  F e b r e r o  2 0 1 8
Aceptada:  2 9  E n e r o  2 0 1 9
Editor  Asociado:  J.  Goldberg
doi:  10.31017/CdH.2019.(2017-031)
ABSTRACT
The arboreal, nocturnal and widely distributed snake Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus (Squamata, 
Viperidae) is known as a generalist whose diet items have rarely been identified to species level. 
In this work we report three new items for its diet: an adult frog Dendropsophus marmoratus 
(Anura, Hylidae), an adult lizard Thecadactylus solimoensis (Squamata, Phyllodactylidae), and 
an adult bat Carollia brevicauda (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae), the latter being the first record 
of predation of a Chiropteran by this species.
Key Words: Anurophagy; Carollia brevicauda; Dendropsophus marmoratus; Diet; Thecadactylus 
solimoensis; Saurophagy.
30
P. J. Venegas et al.  - Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus diet
From the dietary items reported here, the bat 
represents the most interesting record. From the 
several events of bat consumption by snakes reported 
for Central and South America, only a small portion 
belongs to species of the Viperidae family. Previous 
reports are: Bothriechis schlegelii and Bothrops asper 
feeding on the bat Glossophaga soricinia in Honduras 
and Mexico respectively (Groves, 1961; Villa and 
Lopez-Forment, 1966); Crotallus pusillus feeding 
on the bat Eptesicus fuscus (Duellman, 1961); and 
Bothrops pauloensis feeding on an undeterminated 
species of bat in Central Brazil (Valdujo et al., 2002). 
However, Esbérard and Vrcibradic (2007) have 
pointed out that it is not possible to determine if 
these records are from predation of live bats or from 
necrophagy, especially those records obtained from 
stomach contents. 
Although, the bat Carollia brevicauda has been 
previously reported as prey of another viper species, 
Bo. schlegelii, from western Ecuador (Meza-Ramos 
et al., 2010), and the broad distribution of this bat 
species, as reported by Gardner (2007) (known 
from Panama to Peru, Bolivia and Southeastern 
Brazil), overlaps with that of B. b. smaragdinus; we 
concluded, that this is the first report of this kind 
of interaction between both species. The described 
nocturnal behavior for the bat includes resting in tree 
holes and hollow roots and having a preference for 
fruits of the Piperaceae family (Estrada-Villegas et 
al., 2010; Ramos Pereira et al., 2010). This behavior 
may indicate a particular predation activity pattern 
similar to that suggested for Bo. schlegelii, being this 
the selection of ambush sites for success in predation 
(Sorrel, 2009). If vipers waited near the Piperaceae 
fruit or near the bats’ dens and resting places they 
would have the opportunity to ambush these bats. 
We suggest this may be a probable strategy of preda-
tion extended to other semi-arboreal pitvipers, such 
as B. b. smaragdinus and a topic worthy of further 
research.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted with K. Siu-Ting by the early review 
of the manuscript. Specimens were collected with 
the following permits: 72-2008-INRENA-IFFS-DCB 
and 594-2012-AG-DGFFS-DGEFFS. 
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Figure 1. A juvenile of B. bilineatus smaragdinus swallowing 
an adult Dendropsophus marmoratus (Anura, Hylidae) at Cas-
hiriari, La Convención, Cusco department, Peru.
31
Cuad. herpetol. 33 (1): 29-31 (2019)
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© 2019 por los autores, licencia otorgada a la Asociación Herpetológica Argentina. 
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una licencia Atribución-No Comercial 2.5 Argentina de Creative Commons. Para ver 
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New observations on diet of the South American two-striped forest-pitviper <i>Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus</i> (Hoge, 1966)

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New observations on diet of the South American two-striped forest-pitviper <i>Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinus</i> (Hoge, 1966)

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