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Leptodeira ornata (BOCOURT, 1884)

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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Northern Cat-eyed Snake
G: Gebänderte Katzenaugennatter
S: Escombrera Manchada 
SynonymComastes ornatus BOCOURT 1884: 141
Hypsiglena ornata – GÜNTHER 1895: 139
Leptodeira affinis – GÜNTHER 1895: 170
Leptodeira albofusca – BOULENGER 1896: 95 (part)
Leptodeira dunckeri – WERNER 1913: 28
Leptodeira annulata annulata – AMARAL 1929: 78 (part)
Pseudoleptodeira ornata – TANNER 1946: 31
Leptodeira septentrionalis ornata — DUELLMAN 1958: 51, 75
Leptodeira ornata — WALLACH et al. 2014
Leptodeira ornata — BARRIO-AMORÓS 2019
Leptodeira ornata — NUÑEZ-ESCALANTE & ACUÑA 2020
Leptodeira ornata — TORRES-CARVAJAL et al. 2020
Leptodeira ornata — COSTA et al. 2022 
DistributionS Panama, W Colombia (Antioquia, Atlantico, Caldas, Chocó, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander, Santander, Valle del Cauca), W Ecuador

Type locality: Isthmus of Darién, Panama  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesSyntypes: MNHN 6201, MNHN 1994.1356 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Leptodeira ornata can be distinguished from their South American congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) dorsal scales 17–21/19–23/13–17; (2) presubocular present; (3) supralabial scales 8–9/7–9, (4) infralabial scales 9–11/9–11; (5) ventral counts in males 170–193 and fe- males 169–194; (6) subcaudal counts in male 81–105 and females 77–99; (7) dorsum of the head brown, generally without spots; (8) occipital region light brown with medial wide line; (9) number of dark brown dorsal blotches in males 29–55 and females 29–56; (10) number of dorsal blotches in tail in male 18–36 and females 14–28; (11) SVL in males 341–543 mm and females 343–646 mm; and (12) tail long in males 27.77% of TTL and females 24.49% of TTL.
Leptodeira ornata differs from L. annulata and L. approximans by the presence of medial wide line (vs. without well-defined occipital dark stains); from L. ashmeadii, L. bakeri, L. larcorum, L. pulchriceps, and L. tarairiu sp. nov. by the presence of a dark butterfly-shaped spot (vs. dark horseshoe-shaped spot in L. ashmeadii, L. pulchriceps, and L. tarairiu sp. nov.; a dark bar-shaped in L. bakeri; and dark butterfly-shaped spot in L. larcorum). (Costa et al. 2022: Supplement S2).


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CommentSynonymy: Mostly after Costa et al. 2022. L. s. ornata has been considered as invalid (D. Mulcahy, pers. comm. 3 March 2013, polyphyletic in Daza et al. 2009), but revalidated by Barrios-Amoros 2019. Note that Torres-Carvajal et al. 2020 redefined and restricted L. ornata to a single monophyletic clade in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.

Similar species: L. septentrionalis, L. larcorum

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018).

Distribution: see map in Costa et al. 2022: Fig. 12 in Supplement S2. The status of populations in Panama and Ecuador seems to be unresolved (see Costa et al. 2022). 
EtymologyNamed after the ornate pattern of the species, from Latin ornatus, "decorated" or "ornamented". 
References
  • Almendariz, A. 1991. Anfibios y Reptiles [del Ecuador]. Rev. Politecnica. XVI (3): 89-162.
  • Alvarado, Juan G. Abarca; Esteban Hidalgo-Mora, Rolando Ramírez-Campos, Alejandro Valverde-Castillo 2021. Predation of a Legler's Stream Frog, Duellmanohyla legleri (Anura: Hylidae), by an Ornate Cat-eyed Snake, Leptodeira cf. ornata (Squamata: Dipsadidae). Reptiles & Amphibians 28 (2): 218-219 - get paper here
  • Amaral, A. do 1929. Contribuicao ao conhecimento dos ophidios do Brasil. IV. Lista remissiva dos ophidios do Brasil. Mem. Inst. Butantan, Sao Paulo, 4: 71-125 - get paper here
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  • Arteaga, A.; Bustamante, L.; Vieira, J. 2024. Reptiles of Ecuador. Khamai Foundation & Tropical Herping, 1073 pp. - get paper here
  • Barrio-Amorós, César L. 2019. On the taxonomy of snakes in the genus Leptodeira, with an emphasis on Costa Rican species. IRCF 26 (1): 1–15 - get paper here
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  • Cruz-García, Keyko & Andrea E. Narváez 2024. Herpetofauna Diversity and Habitat Use Assessment in Two Remnant Forests of Western Ecuador South American Journal of Herpetology Dec 2024 Vol. 33, No. 1: 1-9 - get paper here
  • Daza, Juan M.; Eric N. Smith, Vivian P. Páez, Christopher L. Parkinson 2009. Complex evolution in the Neotropics: The origin and diversification of the widespread genus Leptodeira (Serpentes: Colubridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 53 (3): 653-667 - get paper here
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  • Duellman, W.E. 1958. A monographic study of the colubrid snake genus Leptodeira. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 114 (1): 1-152 - get paper here
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  • Mulcahy, D.G. 2007. Molecular systematics of neotropical cat-eyed snakes: a test of the monophyly of Leptodeirini (Colubridae: Dipsadinae) with implications for character evolution and biogeography. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 92: 483–500 - get paper here
  • Nuñez-Escalante, Raby; David Garro Acuña 2020. Predation of a Plantation Glassfrog, Hyalinobatrachium colymbiphylum (Anura: Centrolenidae), by an Ornate Cat-eyed Snake, Leptodeira ornata (Squamata: Dipsadidae), in Costa Rica. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 27 (3): 489-490 - get paper here
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  • TORRES-CARVAJAL, OMAR; JUAN C. SÁNCHEZ-NIVICELA, VALENTINA POSSE, ELVIS CELI, CLAUDIA KOCH 2020. A new species of cat-eyed snake (Serpentes: Dipsadinae: Leptodeirini) from the Andes of southern Ecuador. Zootaxa 4895 (3): 357–380 - get paper here
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  • Vargas-Salinas, Fernando; María Paula Toro-Gómez, Santiago Casas-Cardona, Yelenny López-Aguirre, Maribel Rojas-Montoya, Sebastián Duarte-Marín 2025. Smaller ones also matter: species diversity, collection patterns, and functional traits in the amphibian and reptile collection of the Universidad del Quindío, Colombia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 116 (4): blaf110 - get paper here
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