Das, I.

Minton, Gianna

Unimas Institutional Repository

Herpetological Review 43(1), 2012144    nAturAl hiStory noteSrapidly swung around to face the direction of the departed frog, but did not follow. Soon after, the second frog emerged from cov-er and took a few steps toward the snake (Fig. 1A). The snake then moved toward the frog, paused, and then lunged at the frog (Fig. 1B), catching it in its mouth and consuming it immediately there-after (Fig. 1C). To verify whether the frogs on our video recording were E. planirostris, we returned to the site the following night. A cursory visual search of a 1.5 × 4.5 m strip of forest floor beneath the log revealed approximately 15 small E. planirostris (Fig. 1D). If juvenile B. irregularis are taking substantial numbers of frogs as prey, the snake may become more difficult to control than at present. Moreover, large populations of E. planirostris (both on Guam and elsewhere) may facilitate the establishment of B. ir-regularis in new areas, such as Hawaii or other Pacific Islands.  tom mAthieS, u.S. Department of agriculture, animal Plant health inspection Service, Wildlife Services, national Wildlife research Center, 4101 laPorte avenue, fort Collins, Colorado 80521-2154, uSa (e-mail: tom.c.mathies@aphis.usda.gov); WilliAm c. pitt, u.S. Department of agriculture, animal Plant health inspection Service, Wildlife Services, na-tional Wildlife research Center, Po Box 10880, hilo, hawaii 96721, uSa (e-mail: Will.Pitt@aphis.usda.gov); JoSeph A. rAbon, u.S. Department of agriculture, animal Plant health inspection Service, Wildlife Services, 233 Pangelinan Way, Barrigada, Guam 96913, uSa (e-mail: Joseph.a.rabon@aphis.usda.gov).BOTHROPS JARARACUSSU (Jararacussu). DIET. The South American pitviper Bothrops jararacussu is a large viperid, reach-ing up to 1.8 m in length, and is known to feed on small mam-mals, amphibians, and reptiles (Martins et al. 2002. In Schuett et al. [eds.] Biology of Vipers, pp. 307–328. Eagle Mountain Publ., Eagle Mountain, Utah). On 1 January 2011, we found a Brazilian squirrel, Guerlinguetus ingrami (33 cm; 150 g) in the process of being ingested by a female B. jararacussu (total length = 110 cm). The snake was found in the afternoon (1700 h) in the middle of a dirt road, near a secondary forest fragment in the municipality of Cascavel, Paraná, south Brazil. This location is part of Araucar-ian Forest (Atlantic Forest; Castella and Britez 2004. A Floresta com Araucária no Paraná. MMA Publ., Brasília. 233 pp.) and is in close proximity to a river. When approached the snake regur-gitated the squirrel and tried to escape. To our knowledge, this is the first record of B. jararacussu preying on a G. ingrami. This observation is particularly interesting, given that B. jararacussu is terrestrial and primarily feeds on terrestrial prey (Martins et al. 2001. J. Zool. 254:529–538; Martins et al. 2002, op. cit.; Hartmann et al. 2009. Pap. Avul. Zool. 49:343–360), whereas G. ingrami is primarily arboreal (Bordignon and Monteiro-Filho 1997. Rev. Bras. Zool. 14:707–722; Bordignon and Monteiro-Filho 2000. Can. J. Zool. 78:1732–1739). We thank Gilmar Manica and João Silva for field snake han-dling, which allowed identification of the snake; DV Andrade for critical reading; CNPq, for financial support to CRB and FAPESP, for financial support to RSBG. cArloS rodriGo brocArdo, Programa de Pós – Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), laboratório de Biologia da Conservação, Departamento de ecologia – universidade estadual Paulista, rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil, Caixa Postal 199, 13506-900 (e-mail: carlosbrocardo@hotmail.com); rodriGo SAmuel bueno GAvirA, Programa de Pós – Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Jacarezário, Departamento de Zoologia, instituto de Biociências, universidade estadual Paulista, rio Claro, São Pau-lo, Brazil, Caixa Postal 199, CeP 13506-900 (e-mail: rodrigogavira@yahoo.com.br).CHRYSOPELEA PARADISI (Garden Flying Snake). DIET. Chryso-pelea paradisi is a common lowland snake in Southeast Asia (In-ger and Stuebing 1999. A Field Guide to the Snakes of Borneo. Natural History Publications, Sdn Bhd, Kota Kinabalu. viii + 254 pp.), and a known predator of gekkonid lizards (Das 2010. A Field Guide to the Reptiles of Southeast Asia. New Holland Publish-ers Ltd., London. 376 pp.), the agamid Bronchocela cristatella (Lim and bin Peral 1959. Malayan Nat. J. 14:33–34), the scincid Lamprolepis smaragdina philippinica (Gaulke 1986. Salamandra 22:211–212), and the bamboo bat, Tylonycteris sp. (Leong and Foo 2009. Nature in Singapore 2:311–316). On 30 December 2009, at ca. 1200 h, a C. paradisi was ob-served on a concrete walking path at the Piasau Boat Club (04.436541°N, 113.996485°E, datum: WGS84), Miri, Sarawak, East Malaysia. It was tightly coiled around a small struggling arboreal scincid lizard, Apterygodon [Dasia] vittatum, recognizable by the robust body shape and distinctive stripes along the head. This particular specimen had a truncated tail, presumably lost in a prior (near) predation event.Over a period of ca. 10–15 min, the snake remained almost stationary, apparently constricting the skink, whose movements gradually became more erratic and less frequent. When the movements had almost ceased altogether, the snake changed position, and maneuvered the skink to begin consuming the skink head-first (Fig. 1). Once consumption started, less than a minute elapsed before the entire skink was swallowed. GiAnnA minton (e-mail: Gianna.Minton@gmail.com) and indrA-neil dAS (e-mail: idas@ibec.unimas.my), institute of Biodiversity and en-vironmental Conservation, universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Sama-rahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.CROTALUS CERBERUS (Arizona Black Rattlesnake). DIET. Cro-talus cerberus is a denizen of mesic environments in higher-ele-vation regions of Arizona and western New Mexico (Brennan and Holycross 2006. A Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles in Ari-zona. Arizona Game and Fish Dept., Phoenix. 150 pp.). Prior to being recognized as a separate species from C. viridis [oreganus], it was presumed that C. cerberus was an opportunistic predator, taking a variety of prey taxa (Degenhardt et al. 1996. Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico. Univ. New Mexico Press, Albuquer-que, New Mexico. 433 pp.; Ernst and Ernst 2003. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washing-ton, DC. 668 pp.). Since being distinguished from C. viridis, its Fig. 1. Chrysopelea paradisi ingesting an Apterygodon vittatum in Sarawak, East Malaysia.Color reProDuCTion SuPPorTeD By The ThoMaS BeauVaiS funD 

Chrysopelea paradisi (Garden Flying Snake)

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Chrysopelea paradisi (Garden Flying Snake)

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