Erythrolamprus zweifeli (ROZE, 1959)
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Erythrolamprus zweifeli
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Braided Groundsnake, Zweifel’s Ground Snake |
| Synonym | Leimadophis zweifeli ROZE 1959: 4 Leimadophis zweifeli — ROZE 1964 Liophis reginae zweifeli — DIXON 1983: 3 Liophis reginae zweifeli — KORNACKER 1997 Liophis reginae zweifeli — GORZULA & SEÑARIS 1999 Liophis reginae zweifeli — BOOS 2001 Liophis reginae zweifeli — KORNACKER & NATERA-MUMAW 2008 Liophis zweifeli — RIVAS et al. 2012 Erythrolamprus reginae zweifeli — GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012: 21 Liophis zweifeli — WALLACH et al. 2014: 395 Erythrolamprus zweifeli — NATERA-MUMAW et al. 2015 Erythrolamprus zweifeli — ASCENSO et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Venezuela (Trujillo, Falcón, Amazonas, etc.), Trinidad. Type locality: Rancho Grande in the state of Aragua, Venezuela, at an elevation of 1100 meters, in a cloud forest region. |
| Reproduction | oviparous. |
| Types | Holotype: MBUCV 95, paraypes: AMNH, CM, MBUCV |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. Erythrolamprus zweifeli is distinguished from all congeners by unique combination of the following characters: (1) dorsal scale rows 17, reducing to 15 rows after midbody; (2) apical pit single (3) ventrals 138–149 in females and 135–149 in males; (4) subcaudals 73–95 in females and 73–96 in males; (5) dorsum of head black with cream marks on proximal region of the shields; dorsal scales yellowish-cream with apical half black; (6) upper edges of supralabials black, like the head; (7) belly creamish-white with black spots; (8) lateral black spots and lateral-posterior stripe absent or indistinct; (9) ventral surface of tail creamish-white with points or spots near cloacal shield; (10) intrasulcal region of hemipenial body homogeneously ornamented with spines; (11) medial region of asulcate face of hemipenial body ornamented with slightly elongated spines organized in one to three rows, extending to the level of lobe separation; (12) sulcus spermaticus bifurcates at proximal region of hemipenial body; and (13) moderate body size (SVL 129–553 mm). [from Ascenso et al. 2019: 74] Comparisons. Erythrolamprus zweifeli shares usually cream belly with black spots of square or rhomboid shape with E. reginae, E. macrosomus, E. dorsocorallinus, and eventually E. oligolepis regarding ventral marks. Erythrolamprus zweifeli differs from E. oligolepis by having 17 dorsal scale rows at midbody and ventral rectangular dark spots (vs. 15 dorsal scales rows at midbody and belly usually without marks); from E. reginae and E. macrosomus by having dorsal scales yellowish-cream with apical half black (vs. dorsal ground color regularly dark brown); from E. dorsocorallinus by absence of lateral-posterior stripe and dorsal scales yellowish-cream (vs. presence of lateral-posterior stripe and dorsal scales reddish or bluish-cream). Additionally, E. zweifeli differs from all subspecies of E. epinephelus by having dorsal scales yellowish-cream with apical half black (vs. dorsum of the head cream or olive green, with bands on anterior portion of body, a black spot, and a thick postorbital stripe on each side of head). Regarding the sympatric taxa, E. zweifeli differs from E. cobella, E. taeniogaster and E. breviceps by having a cream belly with rectangular marks occupying an area lower than a ventral scale (vs. cream belly scattered of complete black bands, usually occupying two ventral scales); from E. typhlus and E. poecilogyrus by having 17 dorsal scale rows in the midbody (vs. 19 dorsal scale rows in the midbody); from E. taeniurus by having 135–149 ventral scales (vs. 152–181 ventral scales); from E. miliaris by having dorsum of head black with yellow spots and 59–91 subcaudal scales (vs. dorsum of head regularly yellow and 51–64 subcaudal scales). [from Ascenso et al. 2019: 75] |
| Comment | Synonymy partly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970. L. r. zweifeli has been confused with Liophis miliaris (see Kornacker et al. 2002). Liophis zweifeli differs from L. reginae (meristic and colour characters taken from Dixon 1983a) in having a salt-and-pepper dorsal pattern (vs dorsum with dense pale and dark paravertebral flecking in L. reginae) and in having a higher number of subcaudal scales (69−88 vs 55−78 in L. r. reginae). Habitat: forest Diet: stream frogs of the genus Mannophryne, hylid frogs, Leptodactylus validus, salamanders, lizards of the genus Ameiva, and small birds (Murphy et al. 2019) |
| Etymology | Named after Richard George Zweifel (1926–2019), American herpetologist. See Cole & Zweifel 2020 for biographical details. |
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