Chironius quadricarinatus (BOIE, 1827)
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Chironius quadricarinatus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Central Sipo Portuguese: Capitã-do-Campo, Capitão-do-Campo, Cobra-Cipó, Cobra-Cipó-Marrom, Cobra-Espada, Corre-Campo, Sacaiboia |
| Synonym | Natrix sexcarinatus WAGLER 1824: 35 Natrix cinnamomea WAGLER 1824: 20 Erpetodryas 4dricarinatus BOIE 1827: 548 Phyllosira flavescens COPE 1862: 349 Herpetodryas sexcarinatus — BOULENGER 1894: 72 Chironius sexcarinatus — BOULENGER 1894: 346 Chironius sexcarinatus — SERIÉ 1936 Chironius quadricarinatus — BAILEY 1955: 15 Pseustes sexcarinatus — HOGE 1960: 27 Pseustes sexcarinatus — HOGE 1964 Chironius cinnamomeus — HOGE 1964: 53 Chironius cinnamomeus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 59 Chironius quadricarinatus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 61 Pseustes sexcarinatus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 Pseustes sexcarinatus — CEI 1993 Pseustes cinnamomeus — DIXON et al. 1993 (fide HAGEDORN, pers. comm.) Chironius quadricarinatus — LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999: 16 Chironius cinnamomeus — CLAESSEN 2003 Chironius cinnamoneus — TIPTON 2005 (in error) Chironius quadricarinatus — HOLLIS 2006 Phrynonax sexcarinatus — JADIN et al. 2013 (by implication) Chironius quadricarinatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 162 Pseustes sexcarinatus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 612 Chironius quadricarinatus — TORRES-CARVAJAL et al. 2018 Chironius quadricarinatus — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Campos Cerrados of Estados Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Goias, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), Paraguay, C Bolivia (one specimen). Type locality: not given in original description; restricted to Asuncion, Paraguay by BAILEY 1955. sexcarinatus: Brazil ? (Para?); Type locality: “Habitat rarus ad fl umen Amazonum” [Brazil, Rio Amazonas] according to the original description and Vanzolini (1981). cinnamomeus: Suriname, Brazil (Amazonas), Colombia [Castro, pers. comm.], Venezuela (Monagas); Type locality: “Habitat in sylvis fl umini Amazonum confi nibus” [Brazil, Rio Amazonas] according to the original description and Vanzolini (1981). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: RMNH 605 Holotype: ZSM 1744/0 (lost), collected by Spix and Martius expedition to Brazil, 1817-1820 [sexcarinatus] Types: lost fide HOOGMOED & GRUBER 1983, collected by Spix and Martius expedition to Brazil, 1817-1820 [Natrix cinnamomea] Holotype: USNM 5813 [Phyllosira flavescens] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (quadricarinatus). Dorsals in 12 rows at midbody; head and neck reddish brown; body anteriorly bluish gray changing before mid-body to reddish brown; usually more than 2 dorsal rows keeled; usually 2 posterior temporals and most frequently 8 upper labials; maxillary teeth 26-32 [from BAILEY 1955]. It also has 141-161 ventrals, no vetral stripe etc. [added by DIXON, WIEST & CEI 1993: 178]. Diagnosis (quadricarinatus quadricarinatus): This subspecies of C. quadricarinatus has uniform yellow ventrals and subcaudals and no bold postocular slripe, versus brown speckling on yellow-olive ventrals and a distinct dark postocular stripe in C. q. maculoventris [DIXON, WIEST & CEI 1993: 185] |
| Comment | Synonymy mostly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 and Dixon et al. 1993. The information present in Wagler's description (1824) of sexcarinatus does not allow a safe identification, and it is even possible that P. sexcarinatus is not a valid taxon (Marinus S. Hoogmoed, pers. comm., cited in Costa & Bernils 2015). Two recent studies cite the species for Mato Grosso (Kawashita-Ribeiro et al., 2011) and Pará (Maschio et al., 2012), but in both cases, identification problems seem to be involved (Costa & Bernils 2015). We follow Dixon et al. 1993 who consider sexcarinatus as a synonym of Chironius quadricarinatus which is also followed by Jadin et al. 2013. Giraudo & Scrocchi (2002) state that “Dixon et al. (1993) include Herpetodryas sexcarinatus and Chironius sexcarinatus in the synonymy of Chironius quadricarinatus maculoventris. However, this is not true; Dixon et al. assigned it explicitly to quadricarinatus, not mentioning sexcarinatus in their maculoventris account. Boulenger 1894: 72 considered Pseustes cinnamomeus as a synonym of Herpetodryas sexcarinatus. Pseustes cinnamomeus has been considered as a junior synonym of Chironius scurrulus (fide Dixon et al 1993) although its identity remains unclear. Natrix cinnamomea is listed as species inquirenda by WALLACH et al. 2014, similar to HOOGMOED & GRUBER 1983 who considered it as a nomen dubium. Distribution: Phrynonax sexcarinatus is not in Venezuela fide NATERA-MUMAW et al. 2015. COSTA & BERNILS 2015 excluded this species from their checklist of Brazilian reptiles because 1) the validity of this name is questionable; 2) recent records from Brazil lack vouchers or may be misidentified. See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). |
| Etymology | “quadri-” (= four) and “carina” = keel, alludes to the high number of keeled dorsal scale rows in this species. |
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