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Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • VOL15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 189TABLE OF CONTENTS

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

F E A T U R E A R T I C L E S

Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190

The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198

R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E S

The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida

.............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

C O N S E R V A T I O N A L E R T

World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225

H U S B A N D R Y

Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226

P R O F I L E

Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234

C O M M E N T A R Y

The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Eric Gangloff 238

B O O K R E V I E W

Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243

CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer.Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos accullabo.

Back Cover. Michael KernTotat et velleseque audant mo

estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus

aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque

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IRC

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REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSC O N S E R V AT I O N A N D N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

Ten non-native species of amphibians and reptiles are established in Cuba (Borroto-Páez et al. 2015), and a

potentially invasive anuran species was recently recorded in western Cuba (Rodríguez-Cabrera et al. 2018). Of these species, the only ophidian is the Brahminy Blindsnake, Virgotyphlops braminus (Typhlopidae). Brahminy Blindsnakes are small (adult SVL = 100–150 mm) obligatory parthenogenetic scolecophidians that are native to southern Asia but which have been widely intro-duced in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world (Wallach 2020). Both Greater and Lesser Antillean populations have been documented (Powell et al. 2011; Borroto-Páez et al. 2015). In Cuba, this species occurs in sev-

eral localities in La Habana (Díaz and Cádiz 2014; Borroto-Páez et al. 2015), Guantanamo, and Villa Clara Provinces (Wallach, in press). On 14 September 2021, the senior author collected two adult Brahminy Blindsnakes (SVLs = 132 mm and 126 mm) (Fig. 1) in the garden of an urban home at 70th Street #2503, San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa Province, Cuba (22°53'36.49"N, 82°30'35.21"W; elev. 74 m asl), while planting a palm tree (Fig. 2). This is the first record of this species in Artemisa Province and also the westernmost Cuban locality for the species (Fig. 3). Specimens have been deposited in the herpetological collection of the Institute of Ecology and Systematics, La Habana, Cuba (CZACC 4.13497–8). The identity of the species was confirmed from photographs by Van Wallach. Díaz and Cádiz (2014) suggested that these blindsnakes arrived accidentally in Cuba with imported shipments of ornamental plants, and the founders of the newly discov-ered population almost certainly were transported from La

Westernmost Record of the Brahminy Blindsnake, Virgotyphlops braminus (Squamata: Typhlopidae), in Cuba

Luis F. de Armas1 and Manuel Iturriaga2

1P.O. Box 4327, San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa 38100, Cuba (luisdearmas1945@gmail.com [corresponding author])2Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Carretera de Varona No. 11835, entre Oriente y Lindero, Reparto Parajón, Municipio Boyeros,

La Habana 19, C.P. 11900, Cuba (manueliturriaga@gmail.com)

Fig. 1. An adult Brahminy Blindsnake (Virgotyphlops braminus) from San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa Province, Cuba: Habitus (top), ventral aspect of the anterior region (lower left), and the tip of the tail (lower right). Photographs by Luis F. de Armas.

Fig. 2. Precise location in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa Province, Cuba, where two adult Brahminy Blindsnakes (Virgotyphlops braminus) were collected. Photograph by Luis F. de Armas.

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Habana to San Antonio de los Baños, most likely in contain-ers of plants.

AcknowledgementVan Wallach (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) graciously provided a copy of his manuscript currently in press and granted permission to cite some new Cuban records for Virgotyphlops braminus contained therein.

Literature CitedBorroto-Páez, R., R. Alonso Bosch, B.A. Fabres, and O. Álvarez García 2015.

Introduced amphibians and reptiles in the Cuban Archipelago. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 10: 985–1012.

Díaz, L.M. and A. Cádiz. 2014. First record of the Brahminy Blindsnake, Indotyphlops braminus (Squamata: Typhlopidae), in Cuba. Reptiles & Amphibians 21: 140–

141. https://doi.org/10.17161/randa.v21i4.14016.

Powell, R., R.W. Henderson, M.C. Farmer, M. Breuil, A.C. Echternacht, G. van Buurt, C.M. Romagosa, and G. Perry. 2011. Introduced amphibians and reptiles in the Greater Caribbean: Patterns and conservation implications, pp. 63–143. In: A. Hailey, B.S. Wilson, and J.A. Horrocks (eds.), Conservation of Caribbean Island Herpetofaunas. Volume 1: Conservation Biology and the Wider Caribbean. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Rodríguez-Cabrera, T.M., L.Y. García-Padrón, A.R. Acosta Galvis, R.O. de Sá, and R. Alonso Bosch. 2018. First record of the genus Leptodactylus (Anura: Leptodactylidae) in Cuba: Leptodactylus fragilis, a biological invasion? Journal of Natural History 52: 1883–1892. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2018.1498549.

Wallach, V. 2020. How to easily identify the flowerpot blindsnake, Indotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803), with proposal of a new genus (Serpentes: Typhlopidae). POD@RCIS n.s. 11: 4–12.

Wallach, V. In press. The geographic distribution, habitat elevation, and chrono-logical dispersal of Virgotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803) around the world (Squamata: Typhlopidae). Zootaxa.

Fig. 3. Distribution of the Brahminy Blindsnake (Virgotyphlops braminus) in Cuba, including data in Wallach (in press).