Mocquard's Swamp Snake

Tretanorhinus mocquardi Bocourt 1891

Tretanorhinus mocquardi Bocourt, 1891 Morphology. Individuals of Tretanorhinus mocquardi are characterized by a color pattern composed primarily of longitudinal stripes along the dorsum and flanks. They possess 19 dorsal scale rows anteriorly, which reduce toward the posterior part of the body. The number of ventral scales ranges approximately from 166 to 177 and subcaudals from 69 to 85, with sexual dimorphism present. The head bears a single prefrontal scale (although rare cases with two have been documented), one loreal scale, and two preoculars. The cephalic color pattern and scalation are typical of the genus Tretanorhinus, reflecting adaptations to an aquatic lifestyle. Coloration usually includes a dark vertebral stripe and a well-defined lateral stripe along the fourth dorsal scale row, with the lower rows noticeably lighter (Dunn 1939; Fig. 7 A – D). Distribution. Type locality: Panama City, corrected by Dunn (1939). Individuals of Tretanorhinus mocquardi occur primarily along the foothills of the Pacific slope, with a distribution extending from the Panama Canal Zone southeastward to the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador (Dunn 1939; Barquero and Arguedas 2019;

Morphology, ethology, new records, and ecological niche modeling for Hydromorphus and Tretanorhinus (Squamata, Colubridae) in Panama