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Rhachidelus brazili BOULENGER, 1908

IUCN Red List - Rhachidelus brazili - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Brazilian Bird Snake
Portuguese: Cobra-Preta, Falsa-Muçurana, Muçurana 
SynonymRhachidelus brazili BOULENGER 1908: 31
Rachidelus brazili — IHERING 1911: 509
Rhachidelus brazili — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970
Rachidelus brazili — CEI 1993
Rachidelus brazili — FERNANDES & PASSOS 2002
Rhachidelus [brazili] — LAWSON et al. 2005
Rhachidelus brazili — GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012
Rhachidelus brazili — WALLACH et al. 2014: 638
Rhachidelus brazili — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionS Brazil (Paraná [HR 27: 216], Distrito Federal, Goiás: FERNANDES & PASSOS 2002, HR 33: 150, Araújo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, Distrito Federal (Nogueira 2001, França & Araújo 2007, França et al. 2008), Goiás (França & Araújo 2007, Valdujo et al. 2009, Moreira et al. 2009), Mato Grosso (Arruda et al 2011), Mato Grosso do Sul (Amaral 1978), Minas Gerais (Silveira 2004), Paraná (Moura-Leite et al. 1996), Rio Grande do Sul (Lema 1994), São Paulo (Boulenger 1908, Lizaso 1984, Sawaya et al. 2008), and Tocantins (Fernandes & Passos 2002)),
Argentina (Misiones, Rio Grande do Sul, Córdoba), SE Paraguay

Type locality: Near São Paulo, Brazil.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.9.35, a 1320 mm male (V. Brazil). 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: R. brazilii is distinguished by more than 24 dorsal scales around midbody, enlarged vertebral scales, uniformly dark brown or black dorsum, predominantly dark venter (Giraudo 2001) and by its relatively robust body compared to other Pseudoboini. 
CommentSynonymy partly after CEI 1993.

Abundance: Rhachidelus brazili is known from only two specimens in Argentina.

Variation: Young animals may have a white band around the back of their head (see photo in Smith et al. 2013).

Diet: bird eggs

Type species: Rhachidelus brazili BOULENGER 1908: 31 is the type species of the genus Rhachidelus BOULENGER 1908. 
EtymologyNamed after Dr. Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha, founder and former director of the Instituto (Seroterápico) de Butantan, NOT the species’ distribution in Brazil.

The genus was named after Greek rachis (ράχις), backbone, spine + Greek delos (δῆλος), clear, visible. ["…the scales being in 25 rows, those of the vertebral row distinctly enlarged…"]. 
References
  • Arruda, L.A.G. et al. 2011. Rhachidelus brazili Boulenger, 1908 (Squamata: Serpentes: Dipsadidae): New records, range extension and distribution map in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states, Brazil. Check List 7 (6): 854-855 - get paper here
  • Atkinson, Karina; Paul Smith, Joseph Sarvary, Alexander Matthews 2017. New and noteworthy snake species records (Colubridae and Dipsadidae) for the Reserva Natural Laguna Blanca, eastern Paraguay. Check List 13 (1): 1-5 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Boulenger,G.A. 1908. On a new genus of snake from Brazil. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) 2: 31-32 - get paper here
  • Cacciali, Pier; Norman J. Scott, Aida Luz Aquino Ortíz, Lee A. Fitzgerald, and Paul Smith 2016. The Reptiles of Paraguay: Literature, Distribution, and an Annotated Taxonomic Checklist. SPECIAL PUBLICATION OF THE MUSEUM OF SOUTHWESTERN BIOLOGY, NUMBER 11: 1–373 - get paper here
  • Campos Nogueira, C. de 2001. New records of Squamate Reptiles in Central Brazilian Cerrado II: Brasília Region. Herpetological Review 32 (4): 285-287 - get paper here
  • Cei, J. M. 1993. Reptiles del noroeste, nordeste y este de la Argentina. Museo Regionale Sci. Naturale Torino, Monografie 14: 1-949
  • Fiorillo, B. F., Maciel, J. H., & Martins, M. 2021. Composition and natural history of a snake community from the southern Cerrado, southeastern Brazil. ZooKeys 1056: 95-147 - get paper here
  • Franca, F.G.R.; Daniel O. Mesquita, Cristiano C. Nogueira, and Alexandre F. B. Araújo 2008. Phylogeny and Ecology Determine Morphological Structure in a Snake Assemblage in the Central Brazilian Cerrado. Copeia 2008 (1): 23-38 - 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
  • Grazziotin, Felipe G.; Hussam Zaher, Robert W. Murphy, Gustavo Scrocchi, Marco A. Benavides, Ya-Ping Zhang and Sandro L. Bonatto 2012. Molecular phylogeny of the New World Dipsadidae (Serpentes: Colubroidea): a reappraisal. Cladistics DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00393.x - get paper here
  • Guedes, Thaís B.; Ricardo J. Sawaya, Alexander Zizka, Shawn Laffan, Søren Faurby, R. Alexander Pyron, Renato S. Bérnils, Martin Jansen, Paulo Passos, Ana L. C. Prudente, Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, Henrique B. Braz, Cristiano de C. Nogueira, Alexandre 2017. Patterns, biases and prospects in the distribution and diversity of Neotropical snakes. Global Ecol Biogeogr 00:1–8 - get paper here
  • Lawson, R.; J.B. Slowinski; B.I. Crother and F.T. Burbrink 2005. Phylogeny of the Colubroidea (Serpentes): New evidence from mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 37 (2): 581-601 - 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
  • Sawaya, Ricardo Jannini; Otavio Augusto Vuolo Marques <br>& Marcio Martins 2008. Composition and natural history of a Cerrado snake assemblage at Itirapina, São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil Biota Neotropica 8 (2): 127-149 - get paper here
  • Scrocchi, G.;Monguillot, J. C. 1992. Rachidelus brazili (Serpentes: Colubridae) en la región central de ls Argentina. Bol. Asoc. Herp. Argentina 8 (1):
  • Smith, P., N. Scott, P. Cacciali & K. Atkinson 2013. Rhachidelus brazili (Squamata: Serpentes): first records from Paraguay and clarification of the correct spelling of the generic name. Salamandra 49 (1): 56-58 - get paper here
  • Sternfeld, Richard 1920. Zur Kenntnis der Mussurana (Oxyrhopus cloelia daudin, nicht Rhachidelus brazili Boulenger). Senckenbergiana 2 (5): 164-165 - get paper here
  • Valdujo, Paula Hanna; Cristiano de Campos Nogueira; Leandro Baumgarten; Flavio Henrique Guimarães Rodrigues; Reuber Albuquerque Brandão; André Eterovic; Mário Barroso Ramos-Neto; Otavio A. V. Marques 2009. Squamate Reptiles from Parque Nacional das Emas and surroundings, Cerrado of Central Brazil. Check List 5 (3): 405–417 - 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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