Agkistrodon conanti GLOYD, 1969
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Agkistrodon conanti
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: conanti: Florida Cottonmouth G: Florida-Wassermokassinotter |
| Synonym | Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti GLOYD 1969: 226 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — CONANT & COLLINS 1991: 229 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — CROTHER 2000: 56 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — TENNANT & BARTLETT 2000: 491 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — SCHMIDT & KUNZ 2005 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — CROTHER et al. 2012 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — LILLYWHITE 2014: 24 Agkistrodon conanti — BURBRINK & GUIHER 2014 Agkistrodon conanti — SHEEHY et al. 2017 Agkistrodon conanti — CROTHER et al. 2017 Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti — GUYER et al. 2018 |
| Distribution | USA (Florida and S Georgia) Type locality: "at edge of Rochelle-Cross Creek Road, about 7 miles southeast of Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida". |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous; facultative parthenogenesis (BOOTH et al. 2012). |
| Types | Holotype: USNM 165962, paratypes: USNM, AMNH, FMNH, |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (conanti): The Florida Cottonmouth (A. conanti) is diagnosed from the subspecies A. p. conanti. This species is a medium- to large-bodied semi-aquatic pit viper with an average adult size 76–122 cm and a maximum size of 189.2 cm (Gloyd & Conant, 1990; Conant & Collins, 1991), with a ratio of tail to total length of 0.15–0.19 in males and 0.13–0.18 in females. There is a single anal plate, keeled dorsal scales and typically 25 midbody scale rows (range 23–27; Gloyd & Conant, 1990). Subcaudals range from 45 to 54 in males and from 41 to 49 in females, whereas ventral scales number 135–145 in males and 132–144 in females (Gloyd & Conant, 1990). Supralabials and infralabials range from 6 to 10 (mode 8) and 9 to 12 (mode 10), respectively, and total postoculars + suboculars range from 2 to 4 (mode 3; Gloyd & Conant, 1990). A combination of geography and colour pattern distinguishes the Florida cottonmouth from related species. There are 11–16 dark cross-bands on an olive, brown or black background, which may become subdued in adults, whereas A. piscivorus generally has 10–17 cross-bands that often become indistinguishable from the ground colour in adults (Gloyd & Conant, 1990). The head is typically brown with vertical stripes along the snout on the rostrals, prenasals, and first supralabials (Gloyd & Conant, 1990). Dark stripes appear on the lower jaw extending from the mental to the first four or five infralabials (Gloyd & Conant, 1990). A dark cheek stripe is present bordered above and below by pale stripes and often present in adults, although it is often indistinguishable from the ground colour in adult A. piscivorus (Gloyd & Conant, 1990; Conant & Collins, 1991). The distribution of the Florida Cottonmouth extends from southern Florida to approximately Savannah, Georgia, and west to south-eastern Alabama (Fig. 5B), whereas the Northern Cottonmouth ranges in the USA from south-eastern Virginia to central Georgia, east of the Appalachian Mountains, north to southern Illinois and eastern Kansas. Hybridization between the Florida and Northern cottonmouth occurs in the mid-Atlantic coastal plains in southern North Carolina to the southern coastal plains in south-eastern Louisiana and diagnosis may be difficult without additional morphological and molecular data for some individuals in this area (Burbrink & Guiher 2015: 522). |
| Comment | Venomous! Subspecies: The monophyletic Florida subspecies A. piscivorus conanti is now considered as a distinct species (at 4.8% SD), whereas two western subspecies of A. contortrix also appear to constitute a single distinct species, pending additional analyses. Both species of Agkistrodon can be used as suitable ectothermic models to gauge impacts of future climate change (DOUGLAS et al. 2009, Burbrink & Guiher 2014). Synonymy: Burbrink & Guiher (2015) synonymized A. p. piscivorus and A. p. leucostoma into a single species, A. piscivorus. They split off A. conanti as separate species whose range overlaps with that of A. piscivorus, with an hybrid zone where the two ranges overlap. |
| Etymology | Named after Roger Conant, American herpetologist and director of the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. |
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