Sneaking trees
| Sneaking trees | ||||||||||||
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Green Tree Snake ( Abronia graminea ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Abronia | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1838 |
Abronia ( Abronia ) are a arboreal species of Squamata that occurs in the southern North America and northern Central America. The distribution area extends from the northeast Mexican state of Tamaulipas over the central highlands of Mexico to Honduras and the north of El Salvador .
The animal species ( Abronia ) should not be confused with the plant genus Abronia in the family of the miracle flower plants .
features
Tree crawls are sturdy to slender lizards that reach a total length of 25 to 35 cm, with the tail serving as a grasping organ being one and a half times to double the length of the head and trunk . In contrast to the legless European slow worm , tree snakes, like all members of the subfamily of crocodile and alligator creeps (Gerrhonotinae), have strong front and rear legs. The body and head are clearly flattened and covered with large scales reinforced with osteoderms . The head is triangular in plan view. The members of the subgenus Auriculabronia have thorn-like elongated scales above the ear opening.
Tree snakes are more colorful than other sneaks. Some are bright green, others black and white or black and yellow spotted. Often the head has orange-red spots. In all cases, however, the coloring serves as a camouflage and the piebald drawings make the lizards almost invisible on moss and lichen mats. Young animals are usually more inconspicuous and often have a pattern of dark transverse bands on the back.
habitat
Almost all tree creeping species live in the mountains in primary forests at altitudes between 1500 and 3000 meters. These are cloud forests and pine - oak mixed forests, the trees of which are heavily overgrown with epiphytes , especially bromeliads . Only the two species of the subgenus Scopaeabronia , A. bogerti and A. chiszari , which occur in southern Mexico , inhabit tropical rainforests at lower altitudes. Only the northern species that live from Tamaulipas to Oaxaca have larger distribution areas . All the rest live in very narrowly defined areas, which often only include a small mountain range or a volcano. The species are isolated from one another by intervening lowlands. A syntopic occurrence is known only in one case, with A. fimbriata and A. gaiophantasma , which together inhabit the cloud forest in the Sierra de las Minas in eastern Guatemala .
Way of life
Tree snakes are tree dwellers and are difficult to observe in their natural environment. Some species come to the ground regularly, while others avoid ground contact. Bromeliads, moss and lichen mats serve them as resting places and their main food, various arthropods , are mainly preyed on in bromeliads. Similar to chameleons , tree crawlers usually move extremely slowly to camouflage and rock in their movement like a part of a plant moved by the wind. Only the prey is caught by a quick advance. They are territorial and during the mating season the males have fierce fighting. All species whose mode of reproduction is known are viviparous. One to 17 pups are born per litter, the most common being a litter size of four pups.
species
- Abronia anetoi Campbell & Frost, 1993
- Abronia aurita Cope, 1869
- Abronia bogerti Tihen, 1954
- Abronia campbelli Brodie & Savage 1993
- Abronia chiszari Smith & Smith, 1981
- Abronia cuetzpali Campbell, Solano-Zavaleta, Flores-Villela, Caviedes-Solis & Frost, 2016
- Abronia deppii (Wiegmann, 1828)
- Abronia fimbriata Cope 1884
- Abronia frosti Campbell, Sasa, Acevedo & Mendelson 1998
- Abronia fuscolabialis (Tihen, 1944)
- Abronia gaiophantasma Campbell & Frost 1993
- Abronia graminea (Cope, 1864)
- Abronia leurolepis Campbell & Frost, 1993
- Abronia lythrochila Smith & Alvarez del Toro, 1963
- Abronia martindelcampoi Flores-Villela & Sánchez-H., 2003
- Abronia matudai (Hartweg & Tihen, 1946)
- Abronia meledona Campbell & Brodie 1999
- Abronia Mitchelli Campbell, 1982
- Abronia mixteca Bogert & Porter, 1967
- Abronia montecristoi Hidalgo 1983
- Abronia oaxacae (Günther, 1885)
- Abronia ochoterenai (Martín del Campo, 1939)
- Abronia ornelasi Campbell, 1984
- Abronia Ramirezi Campbell 1994
- Abronia reidi Werler & Shannon, 1961
- Abronia salvadorensis Hidalgo 1983
- Abronia smithi Campbell & Frost, 1993
- Abronia taeniata (Wiegmann, 1828)
- Abronia vasconcelosii (Bocourt, 1871)
Danger
Due to the very small distribution area of most species, tree snakes are extremely endangered by deforestation and scientists assume that some of the species described have already become extinct and other species will disappear in the next few decades. It is also believed that some species were extinct before they were known to science.
literature
- Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt: Lizards. Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (= Organisms and Environments. Vol. 5). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2003, ISBN 0-5202-3401-4 .
- Peter Heimes: Sneaking trees in distress. In: DATZ . Vol. 55, No. 11, 2002, p. 16 ff.
