Snails and snakes
24-11-2009 08:14
In the last newsletter
of Unitas Malacologica (available from their
new address), a brief report is presented
by Ignacio Agudo on snail-eating snakes in
southern Brazil. It is based on a survey in
literature, museum collections and additional
observations in the field.
There are five species mentioned as prey for these reptiles: several veronicellid slugs - Belocaulus angustipes (Heynemann, 1885), Phyllocaulis soleiformis (d’Orbigny, 1835) and Sarasinula linguaeformis (Semper, 1885) -, an orthalicid tree snail - Mesembrinus interpunctus (Martens, 1887) and the invasive Bradybaena similaris (Férussac, 1821).
One of the reported snail species is Dipsas indica Laurenti, 1768, the common name of which is Neotropical snail-eater. This is probably based on Sazima (1989), who reported it from southern Brazil. According to the reptile database, this species is only found in Brazil in Bahia and Goias. However, it is also known to occur in Brazil and Paraguay.
References:
Agudo-Padrón, I., 2009. Snail-eating snakes of southern Brazil region and their alimentary preferences. - Unitas Malacologica Newsletter 28: 11-12.
Sazima, I., 1989. Feeding behavior of the snail-eating snake, Dipsas indica. - Journal of Herpetology 23: 464-468.
There are five species mentioned as prey for these reptiles: several veronicellid slugs - Belocaulus angustipes (Heynemann, 1885), Phyllocaulis soleiformis (d’Orbigny, 1835) and Sarasinula linguaeformis (Semper, 1885) -, an orthalicid tree snail - Mesembrinus interpunctus (Martens, 1887) and the invasive Bradybaena similaris (Férussac, 1821).
One of the reported snail species is Dipsas indica Laurenti, 1768, the common name of which is Neotropical snail-eater. This is probably based on Sazima (1989), who reported it from southern Brazil. According to the reptile database, this species is only found in Brazil in Bahia and Goias. However, it is also known to occur in Brazil and Paraguay.
References:
Agudo-Padrón, I., 2009. Snail-eating snakes of southern Brazil region and their alimentary preferences. - Unitas Malacologica Newsletter 28: 11-12.
Sazima, I., 1989. Feeding behavior of the snail-eating snake, Dipsas indica. - Journal of Herpetology 23: 464-468.