TANTILLA MELANOCEPHALA (Crowned Snake). REPRODUCTION.

RUIZ GARCÍA JOSÉ AUGUSTO; CURI LUCILA MARILÉN; LAMAS MATIAS FERNANDO; CÉSPEDEZ JORGE ABEL

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES (SSAR)

Lugar: Estados Unidos; Año: 2016 vol. 47 p. 689 - 689

0018-084X

TANTILLA MELANOCEPHALA (Crowned Snake).REPRODUCTION. Tantilla melanocephala is a small and semifossorial snake distributed from Guatemala to Argentina and Uruguay (Uetz et al. 2016. The Reptile Database, http://www.reptile-database.org; accessed 17 May 2016). In Argentina, there are few records of the species (Giraudo et al. 2012. Cuad. Herpetol. 26:303?326), and reproductive data are scarce. Here, we present the first detailed reproductive data for T. melanocephala in Argentina. At 1522 h on 7 December 2014 a gravid femaleT. melanocephala (SVL= 26.9 cm; tail length = 7.9 cm; mass =10.61 g) was found under a Eucalyptus sp. log in ?Estancia DonAntonio? (28.925961°S, 56.407581°W, WGS 84; 72 m elev.) in General Alvear Department, Corrientes Province, Argentina. On11 December 2014 in the laboratory, the female laid one egg, and on 12 December laid two more eggs. The eggs measured 21.10× 7.76, 24.09 × 7.99, and 23.40 × 7.80 mm; weighed 1.22, 1.23,and 1.20 g; and the volume was 663.28, 801.16, and 743.18 mm3,respectively. The total fresh clutch mass was 3.65 g and post oviposition female body mass was 6.96 g. The Relative ClutchMass (total clutch mass/body mass of mother after oviposition; Shine 1980. Oecología 46:92?100) was 0.52. The specimens were fixed and deposited at the Herpetological Collection of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste as a voucher specimen (UNNEC 13012). At oviposition, the development embryo stage was 22 (Zehr 1962. Copeia 1962:322?329), similar to that reported for other snakes species (Blackburn 1995. J. Theor. Biol. 174:199?216). The reproductive data reported here are similar to those registered for T. melanocephala from Brazil (Marques and Puorto1998. Amphibia-Reptilia 19:311?318; Do Santos Costa et al. 2006.J. Herpetol. 40:556?559) and other species of the genus (Easterla1975. Herpetologica 31:234?236).