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Urotheca decipiens (GÜNTHER, 1893)

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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Pale Ground Snake 
SynonymAblabes decipiens GÜNTHER 1893: 105
Tachymenis decipiens — GÜNTHER 1895
Rhadinaea albiceps AMARAL 1924: 200 (fide MYERS 1974)
Liophis albiceps — AMARAL 1929: 170
Liophis albiceps — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 176
Rhadinaea decipiens — MYERS 1974: 166
Rhadinaea decipiens — VILLA et al. 1988
Urotheca decipiens — SAVAGE & CROTHER 1989
Urotheca decipiens — MCCRANIE et al. 2003
Urotheca decipiens — WALLACH et al. 2014: 782
Urotheca decipiens — SUNYER & MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA 2023 
DistributionHonduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia (incl. Valle del Cauca)

Type locality: Irazú, Costa Rica.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.1.3.96-97
Holotype: USNM 22446 [Rhadinaea albiceps] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (3721 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentNote that GÜNTHER’s descriptions appeared over a series of years.

Abundance: Rhadinaea albiceps is known only from type specimen.

Distribution: not in Ecuador fide O. Torres-Carvajal, pers. comm. 8 Sep 2016 although Liophis albiceps has been reported or presumed to be in Ecuador (Type locality: “probably from Ecuador”). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin decipio, cheat, deceive, mislead. [“...We have received three specimens of this snake, together with as many of a species of Tachymenis, to which it bears a most deceptive resemblance. Also to Dromicus lateristriga, D. frenatus, &c., it is so closely allied that, without examination of the dentition, it would be difficult to distinguish it...”]. 
References
  • Amaral, A. do 1924. New genus and species of South American snakes contained in the United States National Museum. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 14: 200-202 - 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
  • Castro-Herrera, F. & Vargas-Salinas, F. 2008. Anfibios y reptiles en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Biota Colombiana 9 (2): 251 - 277 - get paper here
  • Castro-Herrera, F.; F. Vargas-Salinas. 2007. Reptilia, Squamata, Serpentes, Colubridae, Urotheca decipiens: Distribution extension. Check List 3 (3):185-189. - get paper here
  • Günther, A. C. L. G. 1885. Reptilia and Batrachia. Biologia Centrali-Américana. Taylor, & Francis, London, 326 pp. [published in parts from 1885-1902; reprint by the SSAR 1987] - get paper here
  • McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
  • McCranie, J.R.; Townsend, J.H. & Wilson, L.D. 2003. Three snakes new to the herpetofauna of Honduras. Herpetological Review 34 (4): 391-392 - 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
  • Myers, C.W. 1974. The systematics of Rhadinaea (Colubridae), a genus of New World snakes. Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist. 153 (1): 1-262 - get paper here
  • Pérez-Santos,C. & Moreno, A.G. 1988. Ofidios de Colombia. Museo reegionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Monographie VI, 517 pp.
  • Roze, Janis A 1964. The snakes of the Leimadophis-Urotheca-Liophis complex from Parque Nacional Henri Pitter (Rancho Grande), Venezuela, with a description of a new genus and species. Senckenbergiana Biologica 45 (3/5): 533-542
  • Salazar, Milton and Marco Barquero 2012. First country records for Urotheca decipiens and Urotheca pachyura and range extensions of Urotheca guentheri in Nicaragua. Herpetological Bulletin (121): 33-35 - 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]
  • Savage,J.M. & Crother,B.I. 1989. The status of Pliocercus and Urotheca (Serpentes: Colubridae), with a review of included species of coral snake mimics. Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 95: 335-362 - 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.
  • Sunyer, Javier 2014. An updated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Nicaragua. Mesoamerican Herpetology 1 (2): 186–202. - get paper here
  • Sunyer, Javier & José́ Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca 2023. An updated country checklist to the amphibians and reptiles of Nicaragua. REVISTA NICARAGÜENSE DE BIODIVERSIDAD (100): 1-25 - get paper here
  • Valencia-Zuleta A, Jaramillo-Martínez AF, Echeverry-Bocanegra A, Viáfara-Vega R, Hernández-Córdoba O, Cardona-Botero VE, Gutiérrez-Zúñiga J, Castro-Herrera F. 2014. Conservation status of the herpetofauna, protected areas, and current problems in Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 8 (2): 1–18 (e87) - 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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