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Urotheca decipiens (GÜNTHER, 1893)

IUCN Red List - Urotheca decipiens - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Dipsadinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Pale Ground Snake 
SynonymAblabes decipiens GÜNTHER 1893: 105
Tachymenis decipiens — GÜNTHER 1895
Rhadinaea albiceps AMARAL 1924: 200 (fide MYERS 1974)
Liophis albiceps — AMARAL 1929: 170
Rhadinaea pachyura decipiens — DUNN 1942: 4
Liophis albiceps — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 176
Rhadinaea decipiens — MYERS 1974: 166
Rhadinaea decipiens — VILLA et al. 1988
Urotheca decipiens — SAVAGE & CROTHER 1989
Urotheca decipiens — MCCRANIE et al. 2003
Urotheca decipiens — WALLACH et al. 2014: 782
Urotheca decipiens — SUNYER & MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA 2023 
DistributionHonduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia (incl. Valle del Cauca)

Type locality: Irazú, Costa Rica.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.1.3.96-97
Holotype: USNM 22446 [Rhadinaea albiceps] 
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 3723 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentNote that GÜNTHER’s descriptions appeared over a series of years.

Abundance: Rhadinaea albiceps is known only from type specimen.

Distribution: not in Ecuador fide O. Torres-Carvajal, pers. comm. 8 Sep 2016 although Liophis albiceps has been reported or presumed to be in Ecuador (Type locality: “probably from Ecuador”). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin decipio, cheat, deceive, mislead. [“...We have received three specimens of this snake, together with as many of a species of Tachymenis, to which it bears a most deceptive resemblance. Also to Dromicus lateristriga, D. frenatus, &c., it is so closely allied that, without examination of the dentition, it would be difficult to distinguish it...”]. 
References
  • Amaral, A. do 1924. New genus and species of South American snakes contained in the United States National Museum. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 14: 200-202 - get paper here
  • Amaral,A. do 1930. Estudos sobre ophidios neotropicos XVIII. Lista remissiva dos ophidios da região neotropica. Mem. Inst. Butantan 4: 126-271 [1929] - get paper here
  • 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
  • Castro-Herrera, F. & Vargas-Salinas, F. 2008. Anfibios y reptiles en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Biota Colombiana 9 (2): 251 - 277 - get paper here
  • Castro-Herrera, F.; F. Vargas-Salinas. 2007. Reptilia, Squamata, Serpentes, Colubridae, Urotheca decipiens: Distribution extension. Check List 3 (3):185-189. - get paper here
  • Dunn, Emmett Reid 1942. New or Noteworthy Snakes from Panama. Notulae Naturae 108:1-8.
  • Günther, A. C. L. G. 1885. Reptilia and Batrachia. Biologia Centrali-Américana. Taylor, & Francis, London, 326 pp. [published in parts from 1885-1902; reprint by the SSAR 1987] - get paper here
  • McCranie J R 2011. The snakes of Honduras. SSAR, Salt Lake City, 725 pp.
  • McCranie, J.R.; Townsend, J.H. & Wilson, L.D. 2003. Three snakes new to the herpetofauna of Honduras. Herpetological Review 34 (4): 391-392 - get paper here
  • 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
  • Myers, C.W. 1974. The systematics of Rhadinaea (Colubridae), a genus of New World snakes. Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist. 153 (1): 1-262 - get paper here
  • Pérez-Santos,C. & Moreno, A.G. 1988. Ofidios de Colombia. Museo reegionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Monographie VI, 517 pp.
  • Roze, Janis A 1964. The snakes of the Leimadophis-Urotheca-Liophis complex from Parque Nacional Henri Pitter (Rancho Grande), Venezuela, with a description of a new genus and species. Senckenbergiana Biologica 45 (3/5): 533-542
  • Salazar, Milton and Marco Barquero 2012. First country records for Urotheca decipiens and Urotheca pachyura and range extensions of Urotheca guentheri in Nicaragua. Herpetological Bulletin (121): 33-35 - get paper here
  • Sasa, M., Arias, E., & Chaves, G. 2025. Annotated list of amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica: The role of the Museum of Zoology in cataloging the country’s herpetological diversity. Revista de Biología Tropical, 73(S2): e64536-e64536 - get paper here
  • Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna Between Two Continents, Between Two Seas. University of Chicago Press, 934 pp. [review in Copeia 2003 (1): 205]
  • Savage,J.M. & Crother,B.I. 1989. The status of Pliocercus and Urotheca (Serpentes: Colubridae), with a review of included species of coral snake mimics. Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 95: 335-362 - 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
  • Solorzano, A. 2004. Serpientes de Costa Rica - Snakes of Costa Rica. Editorial INBio, Costa Rica, 792 pp.
  • 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
  • Valencia-Zuleta A, Jaramillo-Martínez AF, Echeverry-Bocanegra A, Viáfara-Vega R, Hernández-Córdoba O, Cardona-Botero VE, Gutiérrez-Zúñiga J, Castro-Herrera F. 2014. Conservation status of the herpetofauna, protected areas, and current problems in Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 8 (2): 1–18 (e87) - 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.
 
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