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Mastigodryas alternatus (BOCOURT, 1884)

IUCN Red List - Mastigodryas alternatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymCoryphodon alternatus BOCOURT 1884: 133
Eudryas boddaerti gaigeae STUART 1933: 7
Eudryas boddaerti — SMITH 1939 (fide VILLA et al. 1988)
Dryadophis boddaerti alternatus — SLEVIN 1942: 469
Mastigodryas melanolomus alternatus — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970
Mastigodryas alternatus — MCCRANIE 2011: 157
Mastigodryas alternatus — WALLACH et al. 2014
Mastigodryas alternatus — SUNYER 2014
Mastigodryas alternatus — SOLIS et al. 2014
Mastigodryas alternatus — MONTINGELLI et al. 2018
Mastigodryas alternatus — MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA et al. 2024 
DistributionNicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Panama

Type locality: “Isthme de Darien” [= Daríen Province, Panama].  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 6202
Holotype: UMMZ 57917 [gaigeae] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 2902 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentStatus unclear. This species has been considered as a subspecies or synonym of Mastigodryas melanolomus. Recent sources either do or do not mention it (such as Leenders, 2019 or Solorzano 2022 for Costa Rica).

Distribution: not in Ecuador fide Omar Torres-Carvajal, pers. comm., 8 Sep 2016. reports from Ecuador are M. melanolomus. Not in Costa Rica fide Sasa et al. 2025. Not in Colombia fide Bernal (2025) and IUCN.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin alternatus, alternate, succeeding each in turn. [“...Sur les côtés du corps on voit des bandes verticales de teinte jaunâtre, qui alternent régulièrement avec celles du dos..."]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) 
References
  • Bernal, R. 2025. Serpientes de Colombia-Guía de Campo. Serie de Guías Tropicales de Campo. 19: 396 pp. Conservación Internacional Colombia, Bogotá - get paper here
  • Bocourt,M.F. 1884. Note sur quelques ophidiens nouveaux, provenant de l'Amerique inter-tropicale. Bull. Soc. Philomath. Paris (7) 8: 133-142 - get paper here
  • 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
  • López-Maroto, V., Sunyer, J., & García-Roa, R. 2023. The herpetofauna of Cerro Jesús María (Cordillera Dipilto-Jalapa), the second highest mountain in Nicaragua. Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp. 34 - get paper here
  • Martínez-Fonseca JG, Holmes IA, Sunyer J, Westeen EP, Grundler MR, Cerda PA, Fernández-Mena MA, Loza-Molina JC, Monagan IV Jr., Nondorf D, Pandelis GG, Rabosky ARD 2023. A collection and analysis of amphibians and reptiles from Nicaragua with new country and departmental records. Check List 20(1): 58-125 - get paper here
  • McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
  • 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
  • Montingelli GG, Grazziotin FG, Battilana J, Murphy RW, Zhang Y‐P, Zaher H. 2018. Higher‐level phylogenetic affinities of the Neotropical genus Mastigodryas Amaral, 1934 (Serpentes: Colubridae), species‐group definition and description of a new genus for Mastigodryas bifossatus. J Zool Syst Evol Res. 57: 205– 239 [online 2018, in print 2019] - get paper here
  • Ray, Julie M. and Patty Ruback 2015. Updated checklists of snakes for the provinces of Panamá and Panamá Oeste, Republic of Panama. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (2): 168-188 - get paper here
  • Slevin, J.R. 1942. Notes on a collection of reptiles from Boquete, Panama, with the description of a new species of Hydromorphus. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 23: 463-480 - get paper here
  • Smith, Hobart M. 1939. Notes on Mexican reptiles and amphibians. Zoological Series of Field Museum of Natural History 24 (4): 15-35 - 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
  • Stuart, L. C. 1933. Studies on neotropical colubrinae II. Some new species and subspecies of Eudryas Fitzinger, with an annotated list of the forms of Eudryas boddaertii (Sentzen). Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (254): 1-10 - 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
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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