SIAGONODON BORRICHIANUS (Degerbøl?s Blindsnake). PREDATION.

ARAGÓN Y TRAVERSO JUAN HECTOR; SANABRIA E; QUIROGA L; ESPINOZA R

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

allen press

Lugar: Kansas; Año: 2022 vol. 50 p. 602 - 602

0018-084X

Siagonodon borrichianus (Leptotyphlopidae)occurs in the southern Monte Desert and northwesternPatagonian regions of Argentina (Cei 1993. Reptiles del Centro,Centro Oeste y Sur de la Argentina. Herpetofauna de ZonasÁridas y Semiáridas. Monogr. IV Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat., Torino. 542pp.; Fulvio-Pérez et al. 2010. Herpetol. Notes 3:65?67). Here wereport a case of predation and the first record of S. borrichianusfor Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, Departamento ValleFértil, San Juan, Argentina (30.09779 °S, 67.8336°W; SAD; 1331m elev.). Two adult specimens of S. borrichianus were foundin the fresh (<1 d old) regurgitate of a Pampas Fox ( Lycalopexgymnocercus) along with two scorpions ( Timogenes sp.), sixcicadas (Cicadidae), bits of an unidentified lizard, numerouswhole fruits/seeds of Chañar ( Geoffroea decorticans), andblades of grass. Most of these food items had been chewedto varying degrees, but showed no obvious signs of chemicaldigestion, which facilitated their identification. Blindsnakes areinfrequently encountered in nature because of their fossorialhabits, but this species has also been reported in the diet otherlocal vertebrates (e.g., toads; Quiroga et al. 2007. Herpetol. Rev.38:208)