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Atractus major BOULENGER, 1894

IUCN Red List - Atractus major - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Brown Ground Snake, Big Ground Snake
Portuguese: Cobra-Cega, Cobra-Coral 
SynonymAtractus major BOULENGER 1894: 307
Atractus major — SAVAGE 1960: 47
Atractus major — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 31
Atractus major — DUELLMAN 1978: 229
Atractus badius — PERÉZ-SANTOS & MORENO 1988: 68 (part., plate 10)
Atractus major — KORNACKER 1999: 65
Atractus major — PASSOS et al. 2007
Atractus major — WALLACH et al. 2014: 75
Atractus major — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionEcuador (TF Amazonas), Colombia (Amazonas, Rondônia, Caquetá [e.g. Caqueta, Florencia - CI Macagual, F. Castro, pers. comm.], Putumayo), Venezuela (Amazonas, Bolívar, Táchira), Brazil (Amazonas, Pará [HR 35: 189]), Peru (Amazonas, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Huánuco, Loreto, Madre de Díos, San Martin, Ucayali)

Type locality: Canelos, Provinzia Pastaza, Ecuador, 01°36’S, 77°48’W; ca. 520 m elevation.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: BMNH 1946.9.7.27 (juvenile male) 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: The largest Ecuadorian species, distinguished by the following combination of characteristics: (1) 17 scale rows; (2) long loreal; (3) maxillary teeth six or seven, very rarely five; (4) ventrals in males, 148-172 (159), in females, 157-181 (167); and (5) pattern or blotches or bands [from SAVAGE 1960].


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CommentDistribution: not in Bolivia (La Paz) fide SCHARGEL et al. 2013. See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin major, from Latin magnus, large/great/big/vast/huge. (BOULENGER 1894, Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024) 
References
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  • Boulenger, George A. 1894. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London, xi, 382 pp. - get paper here
  • CATENAZZI, A., LEHR, E. & VON MAY, R. 2013. The amphibians and reptiles of Manu National Park and its buffer zone, Amazon basin and eastern slopes of the Andes, Peru. Biota Neotropica 13 (4): 269-283
  • Duellman, W. E. 1978. The biology of an equatorial herpetofauna in Amazonian Ecuador. Misc. Publ. Univ. Kans. Mus. Nat. Hist. 65: 1-352 - get paper here
  • Duellman, W. E. 2005. Cusco Amazónico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainforest. Comstock Pub Assoc.
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  • Melo-Sampaio, Paulo Roberto; Paulo Passos, Antoine Fouquet, Ana Lucia Da Costa Prudente & Omar Torres-Carvajal 2019. Systematic review of Atractus schach (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) species complex from the Guiana Shield with description of three new species. Systematics and Biodiversity, 17:3, 207-229, DOI: 10.1080/14772000.2019.1611674 - get paper here
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  • Natera-Mumaw, Marco; Luis Felipe Esqueda-González & Manuel Castelaín-Fernández 2015. Atlas Serpientes de Venezuela. Santiago de Chile, Dimacofi Negocios Avanzados S.A., 456 pp. - get paper here
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