| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Cope's Snail Sucker
G: Südamerikanische Schneckennatter |
| Synonym | Leptognathus anthracops COPE 1868: 136
Sibynomorphus ruthveni BARBOUR & DUNN 1921 (fide KOFRON 1987)
Sibynomorphus anthracops — AMARAL 1929
Dipsas anthracops — TAYLOR 1954
Sibon anthracops — VILLA et al. 1988
Sibon anthracops — MCCRANIE 2006
Sibon anthracops — WALLACH et al. 2014: 667 |
| Distribution | Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica
Type locality: “Central America”
|
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: ANSP 10134
Holotype: MCZ 15549 [ruthveni] |
| Diagnosis | Description. “The following is based on two males (LSUMZ 23829; UF 142714) and two females (USNM 565822; UTA R-53277). Sibon anthracops is a moderately small, ringed snake (maximum recorded TOL 664 mm [LSUMZ 23829]) with a long tail; head very distinct from neck; snout short, blunt in dorsal outline; rostral not extending posteriorly between intemasals, its length from above about one-quarter that of median (but slightly sinistral relative to median prefrontal suture) intemasal suture; intemasals short, about two-thirds length of prefrontal suture; prefrontals long, their median suture about three-quarters length of frontal; prefrontals border ing eye above loreal; frontal longer than wide, widest anteriorly, length about three-quarters that of parietals, in contact with prefrontals, supraoculars, and parietals; supraoculars longer than wide, as long as frontal; parietals long, wide, widest anteriorly, their median suture longer than frontal; parietals in contact with frontal, supraoculars, upper postocular, anterior and upper secondary temporals, and about 7 nuchal scales; nasal single or semidivided, in contact with first and second supralabials, loreal, prefrontal, internasal, and rostral; loreal single, longer than high, length nearly half that of snout, about three-quarters length of eye; loreal bordering eye; preocu lars and subpreoculars absent; postoculars usually 2 (rarely 3), upper (when 2 present) smaller than lower; temporals 1+2, anterior one usually above seventh supralabial, lower secondary one usually above eighth supralabial; no temporals bordering eye; supralabials 7-8, with third, fourth, and fifth, fourth, fifth, and sixth, or fourth and fifth bordering eye (enlarged penultimate supralabial separated from eye by lower postocular); pupil vertically elliptical; infralabials 7-9, first pair in contact posterior to mental (postmental absent), first 6 or first 5 infralabials in contact with anterior chinshields; anterior edge of first sublabial contacting ultimate gular scale; anterior chinshields paired, longer than wide, longer than posterior chinshields; posterior chinshields paired, in broad contact medially; mental groove weak, but present; ventrals 166-168 (167.0) in males, 162-169 (165.5) in females [162-188 both sexes combined range-wide]; cloacal scute entire; subcaudals 82-85 (83.5) in males, 69-80 (74.5) in females [69-91 both sexes combined range-wide], divided; ventrals plus subcaudals 248-253 (250.5) in males, 231-249 (240.0) in females; dorsal scales smooth, in 13 rows throughout body, without apical pits or supracloacal ridges; vertebral row not enlarged; TOL 594-664 (629.0) mm in males, 468-475 (471.5) mm in females; SVL420-511 (465.5) mm in males, 335-348 (341.5) mm in females; TAL/ TOL 0.230-0.293 in males, 0.267-0.284 in females.” (McCranie 2011)
Color in life of an adult male (UF 142714): “dorsum with series of elongate Jet Black (89) rings, the right and left portions sometimes longitudinally offset from one another ventrally; interspaces Cream Color (54) laterally and ventrally. Chrome Orange (16) dorsally, Chrome Orange becomes more extensive about one-third of way onto body; head Jet Black (89) from snout posteriorly onto two-thirds of parietals; nuchal band Cream Color with slight Chrome Orange smudging middorsally, nuchal band extending from posterior edges of parietals onto first two nuchal scale rows; iris Jet Black.” (McCranie 2011)
Diagnosis/Similar Species. “Sibon anthracops can be distinguished from all other Honduran snakes, except Sibon carri, in having smooth dorsal scales in 13 rows throughout the body. Sibon carri lacks a primary temporal, has the fifth supralabial in contact with the parietal, and a rust red body with dark crossbands (versus primary temporal present, fifth supralabial separated from parietal, and ringed body in S. anthracops).” (McCranie 2011) |
| Comment | Synonymy partly after KOFRON 1985 and 1987.
Harvey et al. 2008 reported a specimen from Colombia that may be in error.
Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| References |
- Acosta-Chaves, Víctor, Carlos Garita, Karla Conejo-Barboza, Jose D. Ramírez-Fernández, Beatriz Naranjo and Andrés Jiménez. 2014. Geographic Distribution: Sibon anthracops (Cope's snail sucker). Herpetological Review 45 (3): 467 - get paper here
- Amaral,A. do 1930. Estudos sobre ophidios neotropicos XVIII. Lista remissiva dos ophidios da região neotropica. Mem. Inst. Butantan 4: 126-271 [1929] - get paper here
- Barbour, Thomas & Dunn,E.R. 1921. Herpetological novelties. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 34: 157-162 - get paper here
- Cope, E.D. 1868. An examination of the Reptilia and Batrachia obtained by the Orton Expedition to Equador and the Upper Amazon, with notes on other species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 20: 96-140 - get paper here
- Dwyer, Quetzal. 2015. Geographic Distribution: Sibon anthracops (ringed snaileater). Herpetological Review 46 (1): 63 - get paper here
- Guerra Centeno, Dennis; Héctor Fuentes Rousselin & David Morán Villatoro 2012. Serpientes de Guatemala: Guía para didentificación de especies. Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 186 pp.
- 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.; Gilson Rivas Fuenmayor, José Rances Caicedo-Portilla, and José Vicente Rueda-Almonacid 2009. Systematics of the Enigmatic Dipsadine Snake Tropidodipsas perijanensis Alemán (Serpentes: Colubridae) and Review of Morphological Characters of Dipsadini. Herpetological Monographs 22 (1): 106-132 - get paper here
- Hidalgo, H. N. 1979. Range extension of the snake Sibon anthracops (Cope) in El Salvador. Herpetological Review 10 (3): 103 - get paper here
- Juárez-Peña, Carlos, Ángel Sosa Bartuano and Silvia Sigüenza-Mejia. 2016. New herpetofaunal records for Parque Nacional Montecristo, El Salvador. El Salvador, Santa Ana. Mesoamerican Herpetology 3(4): 1107–1113 - get paper here
- Kofron, C. P. 1987. Systematics of Neotropical gastropod-eating snakes: the fasciata group of the genus Sibon. Journal of Herpetology 21 (3): 210-225. - get paper here
- Kofron, C.P. 1985. Systematics of the neotropical gastropod-eating snake genera Tropidodipsas and Sibon. Journal of Herpetology 19 (1): 84-92. - get paper here
- Köhler, G. 2008. Reptiles of Central America. 2nd Ed. Herpeton-Verlag, 400 pp.
- Köhler, Gunther, Sebastian Lotzkat and Andreas Hertz. 2010. A new species of Sibon (Squamata: Colubridae) from western Panama. Herpetologica 66 (1): 80-85 - get paper here
- Lotzkat, S.; A. Hertz; G. Köhler. 2012. A new species of Sibon (Squamata: Colubroidea: Dipsadidae) from the Cordillera Central of western Panama, with comments on other species of the genus in the area. Zootaxa 3485: 26–40 - get paper here
- Martínez-Fonseca, José Gabriel, Luis Gutiérrez-López, and Javier Sunyer 2015. Sibon anthracops (Cope, 1868). Reproduction. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (4): 528 - get paper here
- McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
- McCranie, J.R. 2007. A second new species of Sibon (Squamata: Colubridae) from La Mosquitia, Northeastern Honduras. Herpetologica 63 (2): 213-218 - get paper here
- McCranie, James R. 2006. New species of Sibon (Squamata: Colubridae) from Northeastern Honduras. Journal of Herpetology 40 (1): 16-21 - get paper here
- McCranie, James R. 2015. A checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with additions, comments on taxonomy, some recent taxonomic decisions, and areas of further studies needed. Zootaxa 3931 (3): 352–386 - get paper here
- Meyer, J. R., & WILSON, L. D. 1971. Taxonomic studies and notes on some Honduran amphibians and reptiles. Bull. So. Calif. Acad. Sci., 70: 106-114. - get paper here
- Porras, L.W. 2006. Die Schlangen des costa-ricanischen Trockenwaldes. Reptilia (Münster) 11 (61): 32-37 - get paper here
- Porras, L.W. & Solórzano, A. 2006. Costa Rica’s venomous snakes. Reptilia (GB) (48): 11-17 - get paper here
- Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna Between Two Continents, Between Two Seas. University of Chicago Press, 934 pp. [review in Copeia 2003 (1): 205]
- Solís, Mario Espinal and José Mario 2015. New locality and elevational record for the snake Sibon anthracops (Cope, 1868) in Honduras. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (2): 218-219 - get paper here
- Solís, J. M., L. D. Wilson, and J. H. Townsend. 2014. An updated list of the amphibians and reptiles of Honduras, with comments on their nomenclature. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 123–144 - get paper here
- Solorzano, A. 2004. Serpientes de Costa Rica - Snakes of Costa Rica. Editorial INBio, Costa Rica, 792 pp.
- Stark, Tariq; Carlijn Laurijssens, and Martijn Weterings 2014. Distributional and natural history notes on five species of amphibians and reptiles from Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1 (2): 308 - get paper here
- Sunyer, Javier 2014. An updated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Nicaragua. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1 (2): 186–202. - get paper here
- Taylor,E.H. 1954. Further studies on the serpents of Costa Rica. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 36: 673-800. - 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.
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