Herpetology Notes, volume 6: 425-426 (2013) (published online on 23 September 2013)
Description of ophiophagy in Clelia equatoriana (Amaral, 1924)
(Serpentes: Dipsadidae) in captivity
Julián Andrés Rojas-Morales1,2
Snakes of the genus Clelia are large and nocturnal,
with mainly a ophiophagous diet (Zaher, 1996; Pinto
and Lema, 2002; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Delia,
2009). Ophiophagy has been documented for some
species within the genus, such as Clelia plumbea, C.
clelia, C. rustica (Vitt and Vangilder, 1983; Pinto and
Lema, 2002; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Delia, 2009),
and recently for C. equatoriana (Rojas-Morales, 2012).
However, natural history information on this last
species is still largely unavailable (Zaher, 1996; Gaiarsa
et al., 2013). Clelia equatoriana (Amaral, 1924) occurs
throughout Central America and northwestern South
America, from northeastern Costa Rica to Colombia and
Amazonian Ecuador (Zaher, 1996). In Colombia, this
species is known from montane forests between 800 and
2150 m of elevation (Castro and Vargas-Salinas, 2008;
Rojas-Morales, 2012). Herein, I report for the first time
ophiophagy feeding behavior in C. equatoriana based
on a captive individual (650 mm snout vent length
(SVL), and 146.5 mm tail length (TL)).
One male captured in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia
(05°06’08”N, 75°29’15”W; 2150 m of elevation) was
held captive for 15 days, since 12 to 27 November 2007,
in a terrarium of 52 x 27 x 20 cm. The same substrate
in which the snake was founded was used for captive
conditions. On 26 Novembrer 2007 at 16:25 h, a male
of Atractus sp. (aff. melanogaster; 280 mm SVL, 41
mm TL) collected at the same area, was offered as a
potential prey to C. equatoriana (following Marques
and Sazima, 1997) to evaluate the possibility of a
trophic interaction.
1
Associate researcher of the División de Historia Natural,
Centro de Museos, Universidad de Caldas, Cra 23 # 58-65,
A. A. 275, Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.
E-mail: julian.herpetologia@gmail.com.
2
Current address: Programa de Postgraduación en Ecología
Tropical, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Ecológicas
(ICAE), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes,
Mérida, Venezuela.
Immediately after Atractus was laid inside the
terrarium, Clelia attacked and immobilized it with a bite
in the middle of its body (Fig. 1A), and subsequently
constricted it with the central part of its body, forming
three rings that coil in right direction with respect
to the body of Atractus (Fig. 1B). Constriction was
applied with the lateral body side of Clelia (Fig. 1A,
B). It took 22 minutes to partially suffocate the prey,
and subsequently the predator moved its head anteriorly
along the prey’s body until reaching its head. During
this phase, the predator quickly moved its tongue,
touching prey body with the rostral and labials scales.
After three attempts, the head of the prey was located
and the swallowing initiated. The prey was still alive
during swallowing (Fig. 1C, D). The swallowing process
took only 4.3 minutes, with the full predatory sequence
totaling 26.3 minutes (attack–constriction–swallowing).
After predation, the predator remained almost immobile,
hiding under a log. The next day after the experiment,
the predator was released into the same area where it
was originally captured.
This behavioral sequence is similar to that reported
by Pinto and Lema (2002) for C. rustica, but differs
markedly of other ophiophagous dipsadid snakes
(e.g., Erythrolamprus aesculapii), that do no apply
constriction on prey and ingest it preferentially tail first
(Marques and Puorto, 1994). Also, there are differences
with respect to ophiophagous venomous snakes of the
genus Micrurus, since they hold their prey while inject
the venom, but do no apply constriction (Roze, 1996;
Marques and Sazima, 1997). To my knowledge, this is
the first report on the feeding behavior of C. equatoriana.
Additional field and experimental observations are
needed to evaluate the variability of prey consumed by
this species, as well as the behavior of prey subjugation
for comparisons with other closely related species
(Zaher, 1996; Pinto and Lema, 2002; Scott et al., 2006;
Delia, 2009; Orofino et al., 2010).
Acknowledgements. I thank to Nancy Aydeé Rojas and Wilder
F. Robecchi for all their support. To Gustavo González, Mauricio
Giraldo and Mónica Millán for their help in the fieldwork.
426
Julián Andrés Rojas-Morales
Figure 1. Predation of Atractus sp. (aff. melanogaster) by Clelia equatoriana in captivity. Still images taken from the video
recording.
Hussam Zaher, Enrique La Marca, Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia,
Diogo Borges Provete, and two anonymous referees provided
advice on previous versions of the manuscript.
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Accepted by Diogo Provete
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