Toxinas animais: Serpentes da família Colubridae e seus venenos

On the identity of Chironius flavolineatus (Serpentes: Colubridae).

The snake genus Chironius Fitzinger, 1826 is endemic to the Neotropical region, occurring from Honduras to Uruguay and northeastern Argentina. Some species of the genus have taxonomic and/or nomenclatural problems, such as C. flavolineatus which lacks agreement in the literature about its authorship and type locality. Some researchers have been suggesting Jan (1863) as the author of the species...

Taxonomic revision of Drymoluber Amaral, 1930 (Serpentes: Colubridae).

The present study is a taxonomic revision of the genus Drymoluber Amaral, 1930, using meristic and morphometric characters, aspects of external hemipenial morphology and body coloration. Sexual dimorphism occurs in D. dichrous and D. brazili but was not detected in D. apurimacensis. Morphological variation within D. dichrous is related to geographic distance between populations. Furthermore, va...

A new species of the Southeast Asian genus Opisthotropis (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae) from western Hunan, China

A new species of natricine snake of the Southeast Asian genus Opisthotropis Gü nther, 1872 is described from western Hunan Province of China based on both mitochondrial DNA and morphological data. The new species is morphologically most similar and genetically most closely related to O. cheni Zhao, 1999 and O. latouchii (Boulenger, 1899), but possesses considerable genetic divergence (p-distanc...

Mechanical properties of the integument of the common gartersnake, Thamnophis sirtalis (Serpentes: Colubridae).

The evolution of the ophidian feeding mechanism has involved substantial morphological restructuring associated with the ability to ingest relatively large prey. Previous studies examining the morphological consequences of macrophagy have concentrated on modifications of the skull and cephalic musculature. Although it is evident that macrophagy requires highly compliant skin, the mechanical pro...

Notes on the Feeding Behavior and Caudal Luring by Juvenile Alsophis portoricensis (Serpentes: Colubridae)