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Dipsas alternans (FISCHER, 1885)

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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Jan's Snail-eater
Portuguese: Come-Lesma, Dormideira, Dormideira-de-Árvore 
SynonymLeptognathus alternans FISCHER 1885: 105
Cochliophagus alternans— VON IHERING 1911
Sibynomorphus barbouri AMARAL 1923: 92
Sibynomorphus garbei AMARAL 1923: 93
Sibynomorphus barbouri AMARAL 1926: 110
Sibynomorphus garbei AMARAL 1926: 111
Sibynomorphus alternans — AMARAL 1925
Dipsas alternans — PASSOS et al. 2004
Dipsas alternans — WALLACH et al. 2014: 230
Dipsas alternans — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionSE + S Brazil (Espirito Santo to Santa Catarina; Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro)

Type locality: “angeblich aus Santos” (= “supposedly from Santos”). Currently the City of Santos, State of São Paulo, Brazil (23° 57’ S, 46°20’ W). The type locality of the neotype is Sítio Rancho Colina da Vitória, Municipality of Juquitiba (23° 55’ S, 47°04’ W), State of São Paulo, Brazil [this is 75 km from the original type locality].

barbouri: Type locality: Utinga, State of Alagoas, Brazil.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesNeotype: IBSP (= IB) 64465, adult male, SVL 500 mm, TL 230 mm.
Holotype: ZMH (Zoological Museum of the University of Hamburg, Germany), but destroyed during the Second World War.
Holotype: IBSP (= IB) 306, adult, sent by Mr. J. E. Coutinho, in October, 1913 [barbouri] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (1214 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy: Leptognathus alternans FISCHER 1885 was removed from the synonymy of D. incertus by PASSOS et al. (2004). Note that Amaral described garbei and barbouri as new species in two independent papers, published in 1923 and 1926 (i.e., he called them “new” in both the 1923 and 1926 papers).

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin alterno, do by turns, vary; alternate, waver, ebb and flow (FISCHER 1885, Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024) 
References
  • Almeida-Gomes, Mauricio; DAVOR VRCIBRADIC, CARLA C. SIQUEIRA, MARA C. KIEFER, THAÍS KLAION, PATRÍCIA ALMEIDA-SANTOS, DENISE NASCIMENTO, CRISTINA V. ARIANI, VITOR N.T. BORGES-JUNIOR, RICARDO F. FREITAS-FILHO, MONIQUE VAN SLUYS and CARLOS F.D. ROCHA 2008. Herpetofauna of an Atlantic rainforest area (Morro São João) in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 80(2): 291-300 - get paper here
  • Amaral, A. do 1923. New genera and species of snakes. Proc. New England Zool. Club 8: 85-105 - get paper here
  • Amaral, A. do 1926. Novos gêneros e expécies de ophidios brasileiros. Arch. Mus. Nac. Brazil, Rio de Janeiro 26: 1-27
  • ARAUJO, C.O., CONDEZ, T.H., BOVO, R.P., CENTENO, F.C. & LUIZ, A.M. 2010. Amphibians and reptiles of the Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR), SP: an Atlantic Forest remnant of Southeastern Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 10(4): 257- - get paper here
  • Cicchi, P.J.P., M.A. Sena, D.M. Peccinini-Seale, and M.R. Duarte. 2007. Snakes from coastal islands of State of São Paulo,Southeastern Brazil. Biota Neotropica 17: 227–240 - get paper here
  • CONDEZ, T. H; SAWAYA, R. J. & DIXO, M. 2009. Herpetofauna dos remanescentes de Mata Atlântica da região de Tapiraí e Piedade, SP, sudeste do Brasil. Biota Neotropica 9: 1-29
  • Fischer, J. G. 1885. Ichthyologische und herpetologische Bemerkungen. V. Herpetologische Bemerkungen. Jahrb. Hamburg. Wiss. Anst. 2: 82-121 - get paper here
  • Gonzalez R. C. et al. 2020. Lista dos Nomes Populares dos Répteis no Brasil – Primeira Versão. Herpetologia Brasileira 9 (2): 121 – 214 - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Harvey, Michael B. 2008. New and Poorly Known Dipsas (Serpentes: Colubridae) from Northern South America. Herpetologica 64 (4): 422-451 - get paper here
  • Jan, G. 1863. Elenco Sistematico degli Ofidi descriti e disegnati per l'Iconografia Generale. Milano, A. Lombardi. vii + 143 pp. - get paper here
  • Marinho, P. S., Sueiro, L. R. and Almeida-Santos, S. M. 2020. An unusual copulation of Dipsas alternans (Fischer, 1885) in Atlantic Forest, Southeastern Brazil. Herpetology Notes 13: 207-210. - get paper here
  • Mebert K., Passos P., Fernandes D.S., Entiauspe-Neto O.M., Alvez F.Q., Machado A.S., Lopes R.T. 2020. A new species of snail-eating snake, Dipsas Cope, 1860 (Serpentes: Colubridae: Dipsadinae), from the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. South American Journal of Herpetology 17 (1): 43–62 - get paper here
  • Morato, Sergio Augusto Abrahao, Renato Silveira Bernils, Julio Cesar De Moura-Leite and Magno Vicente Segalla. 2013. Dipsas alternans (Jan's snail-eater, dormideira) defensive behavior. Herpetological Review 44 (3): 521-522 - get paper here
  • Nogueira, Cristiano C.; Antonio J.S. Argôlo, Vanesa Arzamendia, Josué A. Azevedo, Fausto E. Barbo, Renato S. Bérnils, Bruna E. Bolochio, Marcio Borges-Martins, Marcela Brasil-Godinho, Henrique Braz, Marcus A. Buononato, Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, 2019. Atlas of Brazilian snakes: verified point-locality maps to mitigate the Wallacean shortfall in a megadiverse snake fauna. South American J. Herp. 14 (Special Issue 1):1-274 - get paper here
  • Oliveira, Jane C.F.; Rodrigo Castellari Gonzalez; Paulo Passos; Davor Vrcibradic & Carlos Frederico Duarte Rocha 2020. Non-Avian Reptiles of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: status of knowledge and commented list. Pap. Avulsos Zool. 60: e20206024 - get paper here
  • Parker, H. W. 1935. The frogs, lizards, and snakes of British Guiana. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1935: 505-530 - get paper here
  • Passos, P., D. S. Fernandes and U. Caramaschi 2004. The taxonomic status of Leptognathus incertus Jan, 1863, with revalidation of Dipsas alternans (Fischer, 1885) (Colubridae: Dipsadinae). Amphibia-Reptilia 25 (4): 381-393 - get paper here
  • Peters , J. A. 1960. The snakes of the subfamily Dipsadinae. Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan (114): 224 pp. - get paper here
  • Souza Filho, Gilberto Alves de; Fernanda Stender de Oliveira 2015. Squamate reptiles from Mauá Hydroelectric Power Plant, state of Paraná, southern Brazil. Check List 11 (6): 1800 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Zaher, Hussam; Fausto Erritto BarboI; Paola Sanchez Martínez; Cristiano Nogueira; Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues; Ricardo Jannini Sawaya 2011. Répteis do Estado de São Paulo: conhecimento atual e perspectivas. Biota Neotropica, 11 (1): 1–15. - get paper here
 
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