Ringed Boa
| Ringed Boa | ||||||||||||
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Ringed Boa ( Corallus annulatus ) |
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| Corallus annulatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Cope , 1875) |
The CORALLUS ANNULATUS ( Corallus annulatus ), also Ringed tree boa is a snake from the family of Boaz (Family) (Boidae). It occurs from southeast Guatemala and the northeast from Honduras to Panama and the Rio San Juan in western Colombia . The population native to Ecuador , formerly regarded as the southernmost subspecies, probably represents its own species Corallus blombergi .
features
Ringed boas are up to 145 centimeters long snakes with a wedge-shaped head clearly separated from the neck and large eyes. The basic color is very variable, yellowish or from red-brown to gray-brown to deep chocolate brown. Young animals are often bright brick red or orange in color, but sometimes almost black and take on a less conspicuous color at around one year old. The head has a variable striped pattern. The back has a dark pattern of 35 to 45 spots, which are diamond-shaped in the front area, oval or diamond-shaped in the middle of the body and again diamond-shaped towards the end of the tail, whereby the pattern here is usually less sharply drawn than in the front area. The ventral side is white, yellowish, reddish, red-brown or gray-brown and has darker points or spots in the front area or along the entire length. There are two to four Loreal shields and three to eight Infraloreal shields on the head. There are 12 to 16 shields around the eye and 6 to 10 between the eyes on the top of the head. In the middle of the trunk, the back has 50 to 57 rows of smooth, hexagonal scales. The number of ventral shields is 251 to 268, that of the subcaudal shields 79 to 88. The latter, like the anal shield, are undivided.
Way of life
Ringed boas colonize humid, lowland rainforests up to a height of around 500 meters and also penetrate cultivated landscapes. They live mainly in trees and feed on small mammals and birds, and to a lesser extent also on lizards and amphibians. The species is viviparous like all Boidae .
Systematics
Classically, three subspecies are distinguished, which differ in the area of distribution and in the scaling. Corallus annulatus annulatus in the northern part of the range, Corallus annulatus colombianus south of it, and Corallus annulatus blombergi in Ecuador. However, more recent investigations have been able to show that the scaling characteristics typical for the subspecies are not specific and sometimes all occur within a litter of young animals. Therefore, the northern population is considered a species with no subspecies, while the southern is considered a separate species Corallus blombergi .
proof
- ↑ a b c d Robert W. Henderson, Mats Houmlggren, William W. Lamar, Louis W. Porras: Distribution and Variation in the Treeboa Corallus annulatus (Serpentes: Boidae) . In: Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment . tape 36 , no. 1 , 2001, p. 39-47 (English).
- ↑ a b Ludwig Trutnau : Non-poisonous snakes, part 1 . 4th edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3223-0 , p. 169-171 .