Autoecology and geographic distribuition of the Caatinga's green snake Erythrolamprus viridis (Günther, 1862) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae)

• Grant number: 22/16015-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Thaís Barreto Guedes da Costa
• Grantee: Letícia Cardoso Andrade
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/07161-6 - Evolution and biogeography of the herpetofauna: patterns, process and implications for conservation in a scenario of environmental and climate changes, AP.JP

Abstract

The Caatinga green snake, Erythrolamprus viridis (Serpentes: Dipsadidae), is terrestrial and widely distributed in the Caatinga, where it is considered an endemic species. It is an oviparous species that preferentially feeds on amphibians. Recently, distribution data for the species were made available by Guedes et al., 2014 and Nogueira et al., 2018, however we do not have detailed information about the climatic profile that the species occupies in the Caatinga as well as areas where it can potentially occur, but it was not collected yet. Furthermore, diet data are based on few information in the scientific literature and detailed data on reproduction for the species is absent. Given the above, in this project we intend to investigate some aspects of the autoecology (diet and reproduction) and geographic distribution of this species: (i) identify the most consumed prey and correlate the size of the prey with the size and sex of the individuals of the Caatinga green snake ; (ii) conduct morphological analyzes to verify whether the species has sexual dimorphism; (iii) characterize the reproductive biology based on gonadal analysis of males and females; (iv) using the examined material and published data on the distribution of the species, to trace the climatic and altitudinal profile of the species in the Caatinga, conduct analyzes of species distribution modeling (SDM) to identify areas of potential occurrence for the species. In the end, we hope to obtain original data to discuss ecological, biogeographical and conservation aspects of the species.