Oxyrhopus rhombifer inaequifasciatus (Flame Snake): HABITS AND REPRODUCTION.

IGOR BERUNSKY; FEDERICO PABLO KACOLIRIS

Herpetological Bulletin

Año: 2008 p. 41 - 42

1473-0928

The Flame snake is a Neotropical species that occurs in central South America. Between 2005 and 2006, we monitored 124 tree hollows used by parrots for nesting, as part of a research project on nesting ecology of the Bluefronted parrot (Amazona aestiva). The survey was carried out at Loro Hablador Provincial Park located in the ´Impenetrable´ (Great Chaco Region). We found 4 hollows occupied by Flame snakes; all of them located in white quebrachos. We found four adult individuals of O. r. inaequifasciatus in separate cavities. One of these individuals was observed twice (in the same cavity), on 29th october 2005 and 18th January 2006 (81 days later). On this second encounter the adult Flame snake was found along with three new-borns of the same species. We consider that the most probable explanation for one adult and three neonate Flame snakes sharing a single tree hollow is that the adult had laid its eggs at the bottom of the cavity, and we found it with recently hatched neonates. This is more likely than the rare coincidence of four individuals separately climbing the same tree and occupying the hollow. However, the possibility that tree cavities could act as pit-fall traps cannot be dismissed; in the latter case, the adult specimen would have been trapped. Our field observations suggest that O. r. inaequifasciatus possesses also arboreal habits. Snakes visit tree hollows in order to obtain food and refuge and it is possible that Flame snakes use tree hollows as nesting sites.