Field notes, v1305
Page 73
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
16 March (cherriei active on surface of leaf litter, at 0840, (continued) near the crest of the Arboretum (left of the trail) I saw a ~18" snake crawling in dappled sunlight toward a log and thought sure it was a Bothrops asper - but it is a Xenodon rhabdophthalmus. As soon as pinned it strikes, gapes, flattens, thrashes - looks incredibly like a viper. When I let it bite a snake bag, the fangs are rotated to a surprising degree and repeatedly stabbed the cloth. After a few seconds there were obvious large wet areas of saliva/venom where the snake's mouth held the bag. Got live weight from Ricki Van Berkelum to match the pickled Ameiva festiva I palpated out of the Aphylis aceros - the lizard has a snout vent of 50mm or perhaps slightly greater allowing for shrinkage. She has live ones of SV 51, wt. 3.4g, and SV 49, wt. 3.1g. I'd estimate the prey at 3.5g, since her lizards have been in sacks for a while. From 1400-1600 walked out West River Rd, turned trash in cacao grove, walked to ~400m on New Research Trail, over to Arboretum and back. At 1423 I found a Rhadinora decorata (side Savage key, but has bright orange belly) crawling across trail at ~670m