Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Greene, H.
1990
December 14 (continued)
file Barry Hammell's dissertation. Took photos-
must ask Blehe about eggs, because I doubt I'd have
missed seeing them on earlier nights - suggesty
they lasted only a short time. Checked the sways
below big Dipturops - down a steep slope that reeks
(in the mind!) of Bothrops asper ! There is what
looks like a dense stand of Epithophyllum to the
SE of the tree. Also checked out the waterfall and ford
the trail and pool above the fall both obscured by
large treefalls. At 2033h during a lull in rain I
found a small adult (41mTL) Dwarfides incornatus ~
2.6m aboveground in a 6 cm Ø sapling. The snake was
descending a leaf twig to a horizontally covered in
moss, w/ it's body arranged in several wide loops -
reminded me that another (suppressive) advantage of
body elongation is support on thin structures. By
2038h the snake had crawled slowly, tongue-flicking,
~20-25 cm so that it's head had almost reached the
trunk. At 2057h I stood on an adjacent log to take closer
photos, accidentally bumped the trunk, and the
snake abruptly turned back up the limb, twig,
and extended ~ 1/3 of its body straight up in space.
Hung there a few seconds, then dropped down on the
twig and froze. Scattered Hyla callig. At 2200h I
returned to find the snake in the same place; on the
opposite side of the sidewalk I saw a Hyla elachochra
perched about on the leaf of a bromeliad ~1.5m above
ground.