A New Gastropod-eating Snake


Sazima’s Gastropod-eating Snake, Dipsas sazimai.
Photo credit. João L. Gasparini
 The Neotropical snake genus Dipsas (Family Dipsididae) contains about 35 known species with exceptionally gracile bodies and large heads. The majority of species with known diets feed on gastropods, slugs and snails. The snakes hunt for their soft bodied prey on the ground and in shrubs and trees, and their light weight bodies make it possible for the snakes to use exceptionally slender branches to support their weight. Daniel Fernandes and colleagues have now described Dipsas sazimai from the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. A species in the Dipsas incerta Group that is distinguished from all congeners a combination of patterns and scale counts.  The species is named in honor of Ivan Sazima for his contributions to Brazilian herpetology. Dispas sazimai  inhabits Brazil’s Atlantic Forest from the  state of Alagoas to north of São Paulo from sea level to about 700 m. Sazima’s Dipsas inhabits dense umbrophilous forests and the sample the authors had suggest it is the rarest species of Dipsas in the Atlantic Forest.

Citation
Fernandes, D. S., O. A. V. Marques, and A. J. S. Argolo. 2010. A new species of Dipsas Laurenti from the Atlantic Forest of Brazil (Serpentes: Dipsadidae). Zootaxa 2691:57-66.

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