Yellow-red rat snake

The yellow-red rat snake (Pseudelaphe flavirufa) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Mexico and Central America. Three subspecies are recognized.

Yellow-red rat snake
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Genus: Pseudelaphe
Species:
P. flavirufa
Binomial name
Pseudelaphe flavirufa
(Cope, 1867)
Synonyms[2]
  • Coluber flavirufus
    Cope, 1867
  • Natrix flavirufus
    — Cope, 1887
  • Elaphe flavirufa
    — Amaral, 1929
  • Pseudoelaphe flavirufus
    — Mertens & Rosenberg, 1943
  • Pseudelaphe flavirufus
    — Utiger et al., 2002
  • Pantherophis flavirufa
    — Utiger et al., 2002
  • Pseudelaphe flavirufa
    — Wallach et al., 2014

Geographic range

P. flavirufa is found in the Mexican states of Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. It is also found in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.[2]

Description

P. flavirufa may attain a total length of 1.22 m (4.0 ft), which includes a tail 26 cm (10 in) long. Dorsally, it is yellowish or pale brown with a series of reddish or chestnut-brown spots, which are black-edged and may be confluent into a zigzag stripe. There is an alternating lateral series of smaller spots on each side of the dorsal series. Ventrally, it is yellowish, either plain or with small brown spots.[3]

Reproduction

P. flavirufa is oviparous.[2]

Subspecies

There are three subspecies of P. flavirufa, including the nominotypical subspecies, which are recognized as being valid.[2]

  • Pseudelaphe flavirufa flavirufa (Cope, 1867)
  • Pseudelaphe flavirufa matudai (H.M. Smith, 1941)
  • Pseudelaphe flavirufa pardalina (W. Peters, 1869)

Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Pseudelaphe.

Etymology

The subspecific name, matudai, is in honor of Japanese-Mexican botanist Eizi Matuda.[4]

References
  1. "Pseudelaphe flavirufa". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2007. 2007. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  2. Species Pseudelaphe flavirufa at The Reptile Database . www.reptile-database.com.
  3. Boulenger GA (1894). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II. Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 382 pp. + Plates I-XX. (Coluber flavirufus, p. 39).
  4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Pantherophis flavirufa matudai, p. 171).

Further reading
  • Cope ED (1867). "Fifth Contribution to the Herpetology of Tropical America". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 18: 317–323. (Coluber flavirufus, new species, p. 319).
  • Heimes, Peter (2016). Snakes of Mexico: Herpetofauna Mexicana Vol. I. Frankfurt, Germany: Chimaira. 572 pp. ISBN 978-3899731002.
  • Mertens, Robert, Rosenberg, Hans (1943). "Elaphe flavirufa (Cope), die mexikanische Nachnatter ". Wochenschrift für Aquarien- und Terrarienkunde 37 (3): 60–62. (Pseudoelaphe flavirufus, new combination). (in German).
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