Herpetotropicos

HERPETOTROPICOS Journal on tropical amphibians and reptiles

Founded in

2004

CHIEF EDITOR / EDITOR RESPONSABLE Enrique La Marca. Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Escuela de Geografía Universidad de Los Andes, vía Chorros de Milla, Mérida 5101, Venezuela

PUBLISHER / CASA EDITORA (Institutional address) Dirección institucional Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Escuela de Geografía, Universidad de Los Andes (ULABG), vía Chorros de Milla, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.

Tel.: + 58 - 274 - 2401647 Fax: + 58 - 274 - 2401635 E-mail:ulabg.ve@gmail.com

SPECIES ON COVER

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE / CONSEJO DE REDACCIÓN DIRECTOR Enrique La Marca. Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela MANAGING EDITOR / EDITOR GERENTE Abraham Mijares. Universidad Francisco de Miranda, Coro, Venezuela. Graduated student, Griffith University Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia ASSISTANT EDITOR / EDITOR ASISTENTE Fernado Castro. Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia ASSOCIATE EDITOR / EDITOR ASOCIADO StefanLötters. Trier University, Trier, Germany / Alemania SECRETARY / SECRETARIO Luis Fernando Navarrete. Bioreptilia; Serpentario del Instituto de Medicina Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas PUBLICATIONS SECRETARY / SECRETARIO DE PUBLICACIONES Iván Mendoza. Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela EDITORIAL BOARD / COMITÉ EDITORIAL NATIONAL COMMITTEE / COMITE NACIONAL Jesús Manzanilla. Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela Juan Elías García-Pérez. Universidad Nacional Experimental de Los Llanos Ezequiel Zamora (UNELLEZ), Guanare, Venezuela J. Celsa Señaris. Museo de Historia Natural, Fundación La Salle, Caracas, Venezuela Alexis Rodríguez. Instituto de Medicina Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela Marco Natera. Universidad Nacional Experimental Rómulo Gallegos, San Juan de Los Morros, Venezuela Tito Barros. Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE / COMITE INTERNACIONAL Sergio Potsch de Carvalho e Silva. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, R.J., Brasil / Brazil Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil / Brazil Marinus Hoogmoed. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belem, Pará, Brasil / Brazil Luis Díaz. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, La Habana, Cuba Diego Cisneros-Heredia. Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador John D. Lynch. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia Gustavo Casas-Andreu. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México Federico Bolaños. Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica ThasunAmarasinghe. Taprobanica Nature Conservation Society, Sri Lanka Indraneil Das. Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak Aaron Bauer. Villanova University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Luis Felipe Esqueda. Investigador independiente, Santiago de Chile, Chile Philippe Kok. Department of Vertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium Jonh Jairo Mueses-Cisneros. Investigador independiente, Colón Putumayo, Colombia REVIEWERS / CONSEJO DE ÁRBITROS Names of the people that assisted in reviewing articles for a given year are listed at the end of the accumulated index in the second issue of that year.

DIAGRAMATION / DIAGRAMACIÓN DIGITAL Miguel A. Bastidas. Fundación BIOGEOS, Mérida, Venezuela WEB MASTER / HERPETOTROPICOS ON INTERNET Luis Alejandro Rodriguez J. webmaster@herpetotropicos.com Wagner Abad

Porthidium lansbergii rozei. The “hognosed pitviper”, originally described by Peters in 1968, is one of the two (or three) subspecies of Porthidium lansbergii found in Venezuela. This is a moderately slender venomous snake with a maximum record size of 90 cm. With terrestrial habits, it is found in arid and semiarid regions of the Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre, Lara, Falcón, Aragua, Carabobo, Delta Amacuro and Trujillo, at elevations from near sea level to about 1270m. This subspecies is characterized by having a triangular head, raised snout, yellowish-brown eyes with vertical pupils, stout body and short tail. The background color is yellowish-brown, with a pattern resembling dead leaves.

The tail is short, pointed and semi-prehensile; its color is reddish or yellowish, hence the common names of “rabo frito” (fried tail) and “rabo de candela” (fired tail) that the locals give to this snake. Males and females can be distinguished apart by their sexual dimorphism, with the male being more spotted and darker than the female.

Porthidium l. rozei geographically replaces the nominal subspecies, P. l. lansbergii, towards northern-central and eastern Venezuela, the first having a distribution extending from Panama to western Venezuela.

Porthidium l. rozei is differentiated basically from the nominal subspecies by having less number of ventral scales, a paler coloration, and dark blotches that are wider than the interspaces. In Margarita Island inhabits a population that is treated by some as a different subspecies, Porthidium l. houtmanni, although other researchers do not recognize it as a valid taxon. The main conservation problem for P. l. rozei in the larger part of its distribution, especially in populated regions, is the human interference that has devastated its natural habitat; however, little is known about the ecology of this snake.

Text and photo by Luis A. Rodriguez J. (© all rights reserved).

INDEXED AND ABSTRACTED IN / INIDIZACION Herpetotropicos is indexed and abstracted in / Herpetotropicos es indizada en: Zoological Record (BIOSIS), Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide (University of Delaware Library), and REVENCYT (Directorio índice de Revistas Venezolanas de Ciencia y Tecnología. Biblioteca Digital de la Universidad de Los Andes).

Copies deposited for public access in / Copias depositadas para acceso público en: American Museum of Natural History (Library), New York, USA. Biblioteca Nacional (Caracas, Venezuela), Biblioteca Febres Cordero, Mérida, Venezuela. Biblioteca Integrada de Arquitectura, Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela.

Finantial support / Financiamiento: Consejo de Desarrollo, Científico, Humanístico y Tecnológico de la Universidad de Los Andes (CDCHT-ULA) Mérida, Venezuela.

Sponsorship / Patrocinio: Fundación BIOGEOS para el estudio de la diversidad biológica.

ISSN 1690-7930 Legal Deposit / HECHO EL DEPÓSITO DE LEY PP200402ME2957 (Printed edition / Edición Impresa) PPI200802ME2958 (Online edition / Edición electrónica)