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Issue: Vol. 4319 No. 1: 11 Sept. 2017
Type: Article
Published: 2017-09-11
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4319.1.7
Page range: 143–156
Abstract views: 120
PDF downloaded: 3

Who is the red-bearded snake, anyway? Clarifying the taxonomic status of Chironius pyrrhopogon (Wied, 1824) (Serpentes: Colubridae)

Departamento de Biologia e Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Avenida Fernando Corrêa da Costa, 2367, Boa Esperança, CEP 78060-900, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Professor Artur Riedel, 275, Jardim Eldorado, CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brazil
Departamento de Biologia e Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Avenida Fernando Corrêa da Costa, 2367, Boa Esperança, CEP 78060-900, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil
Departamento de Zoologia, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Professor Moraes Rego, s/n., Cidade Universitária, CEP 50670-901, Recife, PE, Brazil
Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Professor Artur Riedel, 275, Jardim Eldorado, CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brazil
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 11.461, CEP 05422-970, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Reptilia Coloration features Chironius exoletus Atlantic Forest Rio Benevente Dietary sequestration

Abstract

We provide morphological data supporting the allocation of Chironius pyrrhopogon (Wied, 1824) in the synonymy of C. exoletus, proposed earlier in the literature without proper justification. Besides the historical (literature) data, we also examined 155 Chironius specimens previously identified as C. exoletus, C. pyrrhopogon and C. quadricarinatus that could possibly fit the diagnosis and distribution of Wied’s specimens, and performed statistical tests to assess potentially informative variations in the sample. In addition, we concluded that the color features associated with C. pyrrhopogon are by no means diagnostic of a unique entity. Nonetheless, although apparently present at random in some Chironius species in the Atlantic Forest, we suggest that the reddish-brown spots are possibly linked to other phenomena involving co-evolutionary interactions with anuran potential preys.

 

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