The herpetofauna of Timor-Leste: a first report
Author
Kaiser, Hinrich
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and The Foundation for Post-Conflict Development, 245 Park Avenue, 24 th Floor, New York, New York 10167, USA
chalcopis@yahoo.com
Author
Carvalho, Venancio Lopes
Universidade National Timor-Lorosa'e, Faculdade de Ciencias da Educacao, Departamentu da Biologia, Avenida Cidade de Lisboa, Liceu Dr. Francisco Machado, Dili, Timor-Leste
Author
Ceballos, Jester
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and The Foundation for Post-Conflict Development, 245 Park Avenue, 24 th Floor, New York, New York 10167, USA
Author
Freed, Paul
14149 S. Butte Creek Road, Scotts Mills, Oregon 97375, USA
Author
Heacox, Scott
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and The Foundation for Post-Conflict Development, 245 Park Avenue, 24 th Floor, New York, New York 10167, USA
Author
Lester, Barbara
14149 S. Butte Creek Road, Scotts Mills, Oregon 97375, USA
Author
Richards, Stephen J.
Conservation International, PO Box 1024, Atherton, Queensland 4883, Australia; and Herpetology Department, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
Author
Trainor, Colin R.
School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0909, Australia
Author
Sanchez, Caitlin
Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and The Foundation for Post-Conflict Development, 245 Park Avenue, 24 th Floor, New York, New York 10167, USA
Author
O'Shea, Mark
West Midland Safari Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire DY 12 1 LF, United Kingdom; and Australian Venom Research Unit, Department of Pharmacology, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
text
ZooKeys
2011
2011-06-20
109
19
86
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.109.1439
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.109.1439
1313-2970-109-19
FFDE6B4A96644D30FFD8FFEA7F28FFF8
577024
Lycodon capucinus (Boie, 1827)
Fig. 23
Common names.
(E) Common Wolfsnake. (T) Samea lobo (samea = snake, lobo = wolf).
Identification.
Common wolfsnakes have a dorsally brown body with a series of weak pale yellow to white bands (
Fig. 23
). The dorsal part of the head is uniformly brown, offset from the rest of the body by a pale yellow nuchal band. The labial scales and venter are cream colored.
Collection and natural history.
Our single specimen of
Lycodon capucinus
was collected by local people in the town of Same (Manufahi District) while crossing the
town's
main road after a heavy rain. It was brought to us undamaged in a 500-ml clear plastic water bottle.
Taxonomic comment.
In the
Lycodon
literature the names
Lycodon aulicus
and
Lycodon capucinus
are seemingly used interchangeably, sometimes with
capucinus
relegated to subspecific status within
aulicus
. During the time when
capucinus
had subspecific status, some authors did not differentiate it from
aulicus sensu stricto
. When
capucinus
was controversially re-elevated to specific status, this compounded an already confusing situation. As a consequence, the
Lycodon
forms from Southeast Asia and Wallacea under consideration here have been known by three possible species and subspecies
names
. We here follow
Taylor (1965)
and
David and Vogel (1996)
in using the name
Lycodon capucinus
for the Lesser Sunda form.
Figure 23.
Lycodon capucinus
. Male (USNM 573681, SVL 395 mm, TL 491 mm) from the town of Same, Manufahi Distict. Photo by Mark
O'Shea
.