Paraphimophis rusticus (COPE, 1878)
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Paraphimophis rusticus
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Culebra Portuguese: Bicuda, Muçurana, Muçurana-Comum-do-Pampa, Muçurana-Marrom, Muçurana-Pampeana, Muçurana-Parda |
| Synonym | Oxyrrhopus rusticus COPE 1878: 92 Pseudoboa rustica SERIÉ 1921 Clelia rustica — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 Clelia rustica — FREIBERG 1982 Clelia rustica — CEI 1993 Clelia rustica — LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999: 17 Clelia rustica — SCROCCHI et al. 2010: 210 Clelia rustica — ZAHER et al. 2011 Clelia rustica — CARREIRA et al. 2012 Paraphimophis rusticus — GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012 Paraphimophis rusticus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 532 Paraphimophis rustica — MINOLI et al. 2015 Paraphimophis rusticus — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (S Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul), Uruguay, Bolivia ? (LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999), Argentina (Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, Corrientes, Misiones, Entre Rios, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, Rio Negro, Chubut) Type locality: unknown; supposedly in the Argentine confederation (fide ZAHER 1996). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: ANSP 11326 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Anterolaterally divergent anterior tips of the nasals and enlarged nasal processes of the premaxillae, but no specialized spatulate rostral scale; young specimens with a dark head, a faint pale whitish or orange nuchal collar, a dark vertebral band and reddish flanks; adults with a uniform brown dorsum [GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012]. Diagnosis (species): The reticulate dorsal color pattern and olive ground color can distinguish all specimens of C. rustica, except the rare unicolor exceptions, from the other species treated here (Fig. 13). Hatchlings may lack the pale nuchal collar that is present in all of the other species. In contrast to C. bicolor and C. quimi, C. rustica usually has 7 supralabials (Appendix 1). The snout is short, and the loreal scale often touches the first supralabial, a condition seen only rarely in Boiruna and not at all in the other species (Appendix 3). Many or all of the various records of C. rustica from Paraguay are probably based on specimens of Boiruna with a rustica-like reticulate pattern on the sides of the body. True C. rustica have a uniform dorsal pattern (Fig. 13), and lack the broad dark dorsal stripe present in these Boiruna. The hemipenis of C. rustica is spined, not spineless as in C. plumbea, with usually two pairs of intrasulcal spines (Zaher, 1996); C. clelia and Boiruna never have more than one pair of intrasulcal spines. |
| Comment | Type species: Oxyrrhopus rusticus COPE 1878 is the type species of the genus Paraphimophis ZAHER, GRAZZIOTIN, MURPHY, SCROCCHI, ALTAMIRANO, BENAVIDES, ZHANG & BONATTO in GRAZZIOTIN et al. 2012. Distribution: May not be in Bolivia; while LEYNAUD & BUCHER 1999 show it on their map there do not appear to be any voucher specimens from Bolivia. Probably not in Paraguay (Cacciali et al. 2016). See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. |
| Etymology | From the Greek ‘‘para’’ and Phimophis, meaning near the genus Phimophis. |
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