Snakes! Episode eight is all about snakes, specifically those snakes that employ mimicry to fool other animals. We talk about spider tailed vipers, chunky puff adders and variety of sneaky coral snakes. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com

Main Paper References:

Fathinia, B, N Rastegar-Pouyani, E Rastegar-Pouyani, F Todehdehghan, and F Amiri. 2015. “Avian Deception Using an Elaborate Caudal Lure in Pseudocerastes Urarachnoides (Serpentes: Viperidae).” Amphibia-Reptilia 36 (3): 223–31.

Glaudas, X., and G. J. Alexander. 2017. “A Lure at Both Ends: Aggressive Visual Mimicry Signals and Prey-Specific Luring Behaviour in an Ambush-Foraging Snake.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 71 (1).

Raveendran, Dileep Kumar, V. Deepak, Eric Nelson Smith, and Utpal Smart. 2017. “A New Colour Morph of Calliophis Bibroni (Squamata: Elapidae) and Evidence for Müllerian Mimicry in Tropical Indian Coralsnakes.” Herpetology Notes 10: 209–17. OPEN ACCESS

Species of the Bi-Week:

Koch, Claudia, and Pablo J Venegas. 2016. “A Large and Unusually Colored New Snake Species of the Genus Tantilla (Squamata; Colubridae) from the Peruvian Andes.” PeerJ 4: e2767. OPEN ACCESS 

Other Mentioned Papers/Studies:

Chen, Tianbao, Cherith N. Reid, Brian Walker, Mei Zhou, and Chris Shaw. 2005. “Kassinakinin S: A Novel Histamine-Releasing Heptadecapeptide from Frog (Kassina Senegalensis) Skin Secretion.” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 337 (2): 474–80.

Farrell, Terence M., Peter G. May, and Paul T. Andreadis. 2011. “Experimental Manipulation of Tail Color Does Not Affect Foraging Success in a Caudal Luring Rattlesnake.” Journal of Herpetology 45 (3)

Fathinia, Behzad, Steven C Anderson, Nasrullah Rastegar-pouyani, Hasan Jahani, and Hosien Mohamadi. 2009. “Notes on the Natural History of Pseudocerastes Urarachnoides (Squamata: Viperidae).” Russian Journal of Herpetology 16 (2): 134–38. OPEN ACCESS

Flower, Tom. 2011. “Fork-Tailed Drongos Use Deceptive Mimicked Alarm Calls to Steal Food.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278: 1548–55. OPEN ACCESS

Hagman, M., B. L. Phillips, and R. Shine. 2008. “Tails of Enticement: Caudal Luring by an Ambush-Foraging Snake (Acanthophis Praelongus, Elapidae).” Functional Ecology 22 (6): 1134–39. OPEN ACCESS

Hagman, M., Phillips, B.L. and Shine, R., 2009. "Fatal attraction: adaptations to prey on native frogs imperil snakes after invasion of toxic toads." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 276 (1668): 2813-2818.

Marques, O.A., Martins, M., Develey, P.F., Macarrao, A. and Sazima, I., 2012. "The golden lancehead Bothrops insularis (Serpentes: Viperidae) relies on two seasonally plentiful bird species visiting its island habitat." Journal of Natural History, 46 (13-14): 885-895.

Mattute, B, F C Knoop, and J M Conlon. 2000. “Kassinatuerin-1: A Peptide with Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity Isolated from the Skin of the Hyperoliid Frog, Kassina Senegalensis.” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 268 (2): 433–36.

Nelson, X.J., Garnett, D.T. and Evans, C.S., 2010. "Receiver psychology and the design of the deceptive caudal luring signal of the death adder." Animal Behaviour 79 (3): 555-561.

Pantanowitz, L, T W Naudé, and A Leisewitz. 1998. “Noxious Toads and Frogs of South Africa.” South African Medical Journal 88 (11): 1408–14. OPEN ACCESS

Pfennig, David W, and Sean P Mullen. 2010. “Mimics without Models: Causes and Consequences of Allopatry in Batesian Mimicry Complexes.” Proceedings. Biological Sciences / The Royal Society 277 (1694): 2577–85. OPEN ACCESS

Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, Haji Gholi Kami, Mehdi Rajabzadeh, Soheila Shafiei, and Steven Clement Anderson. 2008. “Annotated Checklist of Amphibians and Reptiles of Iran.” Iranian Journal of Animal Biosystematics 4 (1): 7–30. OPEN ACCESS

Silva, Inês, Matt Crane, Taksin Artchawakom, Pongthep Suwanwaree, and Colin T Strine. 2016. “More than Meets the Eye: Change in Pupil Shape by a Mock Viper.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 14 (8): 453–54. doi:10.1002/FEE.1420. OPEN ACCESS

Other Links/Mentions:

Xavier Glaudas describes his research on puff adders (Bitis arietans) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3umGcQw-JWA

Puff Adder Strike Slow-Mo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPfG4OdGEyI

Death adder caudal luring - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSizvBwFL-A

Iranian spider-tailed viper tricks bird, SciNews - https://figshare.com/articles/Avian_deception_using_an_elaborate_caudal_lure_in_Pseudocerastes_urarachnoides_Serpentes_Viperidae_/1454446

Link to Supplementary Material of Glaudas et al. 2017  - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-016-2244-6#SupplementaryMaterial

Music – http://www.purple-planet.com