Sibon hartwegi (PETERS, 1960)
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Sibon hartwegi
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| Higher Taxa | Colubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Hartweg’s Snail-eating Snake |
| Synonym | Sibon nebulata hartwegi PETERS 1960: 200 Sibon nebulata hartwegi — PÉREZ-SANTOS & MORENO 1988: 309 Sibon hartwegi — ARTEAGA & BATISTA 2023 Sibon hartwegi — BERNAL 2025 Sibon hartwegi — FOUQUET et al. 2025 |
| Distribution | Colombia Type locality: Barrancabermeja, Santander, Colombia. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: FMNH 27580, male Other specimens: COLOMBIA (AMNH 17475, 17623): Barrancabermeja (CNHM 27580, holotype), Bogotá (MCZ 19205; USNM 95924-25), Medellín (AMNH 37938, 35546-47), Paime (MCZ 21098), Sasaima (ANSP 22781; UMMZ 78284). (All of above are designated as paratypes, with the exception of AMNH 17475 and AMNH 17623, which are badly faded.) |
| Diagnosis | DIAGNOSIS (n=1): The members of this subspecies have broad, regular, well-formed dorsal blotches on the neck, followed by blotches reduced in size and poorly marked, on rest of body. The ventrals in males are 171-195, in females 172-181. The subcaudals in males are 85-103, in females 75-82. Body length male 496 mm., female 439 mm., minimum 189 mm.; tail length male 173 mm., female 139 mm., minimum 52 mm. COLOR. Dorsal ground color light brown or brownish-gray, first chocolate-brown body blotch well-formed, regular, wide, sharply set off from interspaces, second and third blotches often as well-formed as first but not as wide, with rounded edges and clearly defined light-cream borders; remaining body blotches irregular, with many secondary blotches in interspaces; primary blotches easily distinguished from secondary blotches on all parts of body by greater width, well-marked cream borders, and by extending onto ventrals; ground color darkens posteriorly, with heavy stippling of chocolate-brown, pattern of dorsal blotches somewhat obscured far posteriorly. Dorsum of tail as body, darkening considerably on posterior part. Venter creamy white, color as borders of dorsal blotches; blotches extend well onto ventrals on all parts of body, usually two or more ventrals in width and often in contact with blotch from opposite side, first blotch 3 to 8 ventrals wide and usually completely fused across midventer; interspaces spotted and stippled with dark brown, increasing posteriorly. Tail with more dark brown than cream ventrally, usually some indication of dorsal pattern left on all individuals. Dorsum of head for most part unicolor chocolate-brown, with cream punctulations on outer edges of parietals, supraoculars, prefrontals and snout in some individuals; side of head slightly lighter brown, with increased creamy spotting; upper labials predominantly dark brown. Chin and lower labials and throat with fairly heavy brown spotting; no unicolor chins. (Peters 1960) Unfortunately 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 2319 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Relative abundance in Honduras: rare Type species: Coluber nebulatus LINNAEUS 1758 is the type species of the genus Sibon FITZINGER 1826. Diet: snails (Santos et al. 2017 and references therein) Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). Synonymy: Leptognathus leucomelas BOULENGER 1896 and Sibon hartwegi have been removed from the synonymy of S. nebulatus by ARTEAGA & BATISTA 2023. |
| Etymology | Apparently named after the color pattern which can be fuzzy and nebulous, from Latin nebula = fog, cloud, nebula. The genus name “Sibon may derive from the Latin noun sibonis, a kind of hunting spear" (Lee, 1996:357, cited in McCranie 2011). The name may refer to the attenuate form of the type species of the genus. See J. Peters (1960) for a discussion of the complicated nomenclatural history of the generic name Sibon. H. Smith (1983) argued that the name was masculine in gender, not neuter or feminine, as regarded by some authors. |
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