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] |
| 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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