Mussurana bicolor (PERACCA, 1904)
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Mussurana bicolor
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Two-colored Mussurana Portuguese: Cobra-Coral, Coral, Falsa-Coral, Muçurana, Muçurana-Bicolor |
| Synonym | Oxyrhopus bicolor PERACCA 1904: 667 Clelia bicolor — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 Clelia bicolor — CEI 1993 Clelia bicolor — LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999: 16 Clelia bicolor — SCROCCHI et al. 2006: 80 Mussurana bicolor — ZAHER et al. 2009 Clelia bicolor — CANO et al. 2015 Mussurana bicolor — WALLACH et al. 2014: 462 Mussurana bicolor — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul), Paraguay, Argentina (Santa Fe, Chaco, Formosa, Corrientes, Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Misiones [HR 30: 174]), Peru Type locality: north of Santa Fé, Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: MHNG 677.47 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (Mussurana): Presence of ontogenetic changes in color pattern; juveniles with a brick red color, a black lon‐ gitudinal vertebral band, and an uniformly creamish venter. Adults with dorsum entirely black; Hemipenis with a unique row of larger papillae on the internal face of the lobes; postero‐ventral tip of the nasal gland lon‐ ger than wide; dorsal wall of Duvernoy gland reduced along all its dorsal surface (Zaher, 1994b; 1999). Diagnosis – Mussurana (Clelia) bicolor in the study area can be distinguished from all other Boiruna and Clelia by the low number of ventral scales (163-187; Appendix 4, Fig. 4). Its gray or brown dorsum is never as dark as that of C. clelia, C. plumbea, and Boiruna. Except for the lateral tips of the ventrals, the venter of C. bicolor is always clear ivory. In C. bicolor of all sizes, the border between the dark dorsal head coloration and the lighter supralabials is sharp and distinct at the dorsal edge of the supralabial row (photographs in Cei, 1993; Giraudo, 2002). The general coloration of C. bicolor is similar to that of C. quimi; however, the color transition on the side of the head is more gradual in C. quimi, and the dark dorsal color extends further onto the supralabials (see illustration in Franco et al., 1997). Clelia bicolor is the smallest species (maximum total length 990 mm; Fig. 3). Clelia bicolor and C. quimi generally have 8 supralabials on each side; the other Clelia and Boiruna generally have 7 (Appendix 1). A dark dorsal stripe is seen in hatchling C. bicolor, C. quimi, and B. maculata. A white nape band may be distinct in hatchlings or almost lacking [diagnosis based on Clelia] |
| Comment | Type species: Oxyrhopus bicolor PERACCA 1904 is the type species of the genus Mussurana ZAHER et al. 2009. |
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