Parrot Snake

distribution

Distribution. Widespread from Central America (Wallach et al., 2014) to most of South America, occurring in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, and Venezuela (Plt. 136 A). In Brazil, recorded in all ecoregions except Araucaria Forest and Pampas Grasslands (Plt. 136 A), mostly at low elevations (Plt. 136 B). Observed in the field in forest, including upland forest enclaves in Caatinga, gallery forest in Cerrado, and disturbed areas (Strüssmann and Sazima, 1993; Carvalho and Nogueira, 1998; Martins and Oliveira, 1998; Marques, 2001; Giraudo and Scrocchi, 2002; Rodrigues, 2003; Bernarde and Abe, 2006; Martins et al., 2008 b; Oliveira-Santos and Leuchtenberger, 2009; Loebmann and Haddad, 2010).

Atlas of Brazilian Snakes: Verified Point-Locality Maps to Mitigate the Wallacean Shortfall in a Megadiverse Snake Fauna

Leptophis ahaetulla (Linnaeus 1758) Linnaeus 1758

Leptophis ahaetulla (Linnaeus, 1758) “Cobra-de-jericoá, Cipó-verde” (Figs. 12.2 and 25.1) Recorded in all portions of the Caatinga, except in Rio Grande do Norte State and the sandy dunes of São Francisco River, probably due to sampling gaps. It is recorded mostly on lowlands (up to 500 m elevation), but there are a few records in isolated highlands of the Ibiapaba-Araripe Plateau (900 m elevation) and Diamantina Plateau (at least 740 m elevation). It is also recorded in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal regions (Marques et al. 2001, 2005; Nogueira et al. 2010). In Caatinga this snake occurs in all phytophisiognomies, but mostly in bushy and arboreal caatinga vegetation. It has arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates (Marques et al. 2001, 2005).

Diversity, natural history, and geographic distribution of snakes in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil