Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral snakes

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drtoddlewis
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Joined: March 9th, 2014, 2:13 pm

Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral snakes

Post by drtoddlewis »

Dear Readers

From years of research there is a unique relationship between coral snakes, fossorial amphisbaenians and caecilians emerging. Studies have found that a range of snakes, mostly coral snakes of the Micrurus in Central and South America, are known to feed predominantly, and possibly almost exclusively, on amphisbaenians and caecilians (Greene 1973; Jackson and Franz 1981; Greene 1984; Burger 1997; Marques and Sazima 1997; Savage 2002; Kupfer et al. 2003; Gower et al. 2004; Guyer and Donnelly 2005; Saporito 2007).

Many amphisbaenians and caecilians are highly fossorial and live for the most part underground, rising to the surface after heavy rains where they feed on a diverse range of prey (Taylor 1969). When amphisbaenians and caecilians mobilise after heavy rainfall, individual Micrurus spp. have been found to forage for and capture these preys either in their underground shelters or on the ground (Marques and Sazima 1997). Coral snakes appear adept at finding the subterranean galleries built by amphisbaenians and do so by following signals left on the terrestrial surface (Marques 1992; Roze 1996; Jared et al. 1999). These signals (possibly chemical tracks) are likely to be more evident in the soil during rainy periods (when amphisbaenians move more frequently to the surface), and possibly incite the foraging activity of Micrurus spp.

That Micrurus spp. can detect the toxins of caecilians and chemically track them as prey is possible but difficult to confirm. It is suggested that coral snakes’ secretive nature and underground behaviour may have possibly evolved in the same niche habitats as caecilians thus allowing them to become predators of a range of fossorial amphibians (Roze 1996).

Interestingly, recent studies on activity patterns are now suggesting that environmental triggers such as higher temperatures and conditions of humidity may correlate directly with increased activity patterns in Micrurus spp. (Marques et al. 2006). It therefore may be possible in the future to deduce that coral snakes are more active during certain warmer or wetter periods of a tropical year because amphisbaenians and caecilians, which feed upon invertebrates, soft-bodied invertebrates, beetles, ants, termites, small frogs, lizards and even small blind snakes (Taylor 1968; Pough et al. 1998; Gaborieau and Measey 2004; Measey et al. 2004; Marques and Sazima 2004), may also be more active at this time when their prey are more abundant (e.g. Janzen and Schoener 1968).

With this in mind, any observations about interactions between fossorial snakes, amphisbaenians and caecilians may help toward understanding the natural history behind this predator-prey relationship. The above points have stimulated me to ask the wider herpetological community for any further information on environmental conditions and activity patterns or predator and prey interactions for these species. In particular I am keen to hear about observations from anyone that is aware of other coral snake species such as Calliophis spp. in Asia that may feed on caecilians?

LITERATURE CITED

Burger, R.M. 1997. Predation by two species of coral snakes in Limon Province, Costa Rica. Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc. 32: 145.

Gaborieau, O. and Measey, J. G. 2004. Termitivore or detritivore? a quantitative investigation into the diet of the East African caecilian Boulengerula taitanus (Amphibia; Gymnophiona, Caecilidae). Animal Biology 54: 45-56.

Gower, D. J., Rasmussen, J. B., Loader, S. P. and Wilkinson, M. 2004. The caecilian amphibian Scolecomorphus kirkii as prey of the burrowing asp Atractaspis aterrima (Gunther): trophic relationship of fossorial vertebrates. Afr. J. Ecol. 42: 83.

Greene, H. W. 1973. Defensive tail display by snakes and amphisbaenians. J. Herpetol. 7: 143-161.

Greene, H. W. 1984. Feeding behavior and diet of the eastern coral snake, Micrurus fulvius. Special Pub. Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. 10: 147-162.

Guyer, C. and Donnelly, M. A. 2005. Amphibians and reptiles of La Selva, Costa Rica and the Caribbean slope. California University Press, California. 367 pp.

Jackson, D. R. and Franz, R. 1981. Ecology of the eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius) in northern peninsular Florida. Herpetologica 37: 213-228.

Janzen, D. H. and Schoener, T. W. 1968. Differences in insect abundance and diversity between wetter and drier sites during a tropical dry season. Ecology 49: 96-110.

Jared, C., Antoniazzi, M. M., Silva, J. R. M. C. and Freymuller, E. (1999). Epidermal glands in Squamata: microscopical examination of pre-cloacal glands in Amphisbaena alba (Amphisbaenia, Amphisbaenidae). J. Morphology 241: 197-206.

Kupfer, A., Gower, D. J. and Werner, H. 2003. Field Observations on the Predation of the caecilian amphibian, genus Ichthyophis (Fitzinger 1826), by the red-tailed pipe- snake Cylindrophis ruffus (Laurenti 1768). Amphibia-Reptilia 24: 212-215.

Marques, O. A. V. 1992. História natural de Micrurus corallinus (Serpentes, Elapidae). M.Sc. dissertation, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil. 80 p.

Marques, O. A. V. and Sazima, I. 1997. Diet and feeding behavior of the coral snake, Micrurus corallinus, from the Atlantic forest of Brazil. Herpetological Natural History 5: 88-93.

Marques, O. A. V. and Sazima, I. 2004. História natural dos répteis da Estação Ecológica Juréia-Itatins. In: O. A. V. Marques and W. Duleba (eds.), pp. 257-277. Estação Ecológica Juréia-Itatins, Ambiente Físico, Flora e Fauna. Editora Holos, Ribeirão Preto.

Marques, O. A. V., Almeida-Santos, S. M. and Rodrigues, M. G. 2006. Activity Patterns in coral snakes, genus Micrurus (Elapidae) in South and Southeastern Brasil. S. Amer. J. Herpetol. 1 (2): 99-105.

Measey, J. G., Gower, D. J., Oomen, V. O. and Wilkinson, M. 2004. A subterranean generalist predator: diet of the soil dwelling caecilian Gegeneophis ramaswamii (Amphibia; Gymnophiona, Caecilidae) in southern India. C. R. Biologies 327: 65-76.

Pough, F. H., Andrews, R. M., Cadle, J. E., Crump, M. L., Savitzky, A. H. and Wells, K. D. 1998. Herpetology (Third Edition). Prentice Hall Press, New Jersey. 736 pp.

Roze, J. A. 1996. Coral snakes of the Americas: biology, identification, and venoms. Krieger Publishing Co, Florida, 262 pp.

Saporito, R. A. 2007. Gymnopis multiplicata (purple caecilian), Micrurus mipartitus (many-banded coral snake). Predator prey interactions. Herpetol. Rev. 38 (2), 199.

Savage, J. M. 2002. The amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica: a herpetofauna between two continents, between two seas. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 954 pp.

Taylor, E. H. 1968. The caecilians of the world: a taxonomic review. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas. 848 pp.
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regalringneck
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Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by regalringneck »

... provocative ? for a 1st post, nice work! I recall (probably from my readings in Roze), that the surinam corales were big caecilian/eel? predators but i wasn't aware this behavior was throughout the tropical genus. One of our florida members might try offering an amphiuma to one. I feel pretty confident tho that our local diminutive Az corales have never encountered such fine fare. It seems the new world was cheated terribly when pangea broke up leaving us a single elapid & varanid terrestrial group.
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Mike VanValen
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Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by Mike VanValen »

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
drtoddlewis
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Joined: March 9th, 2014, 2:13 pm

Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by drtoddlewis »

Thanks for replying Regal. That makes sense for Az corals and I'd be interested to know what happens with any prey offerings. It would be neat to discover what dietary preferences are understood for many Micrurus. I've never doubted they feed on a number of prey but their subterranean habits could well limit prey type, preference and habitat and this may restrict distribution for some species. It might help assist population surveys too. In many habitats, detection seems to be tricky and I reckon they are more populous than people realise. I have hit up a few areas in several tropical countries with intensive leaf-litter quadrats and it sometimes drags a few out, but only in certain areas. For M. alleni these were mostly swamp forests. I've seen M. alleni feeding on synbranchus eels in the tropics but little else. I never seemed to detect them in any other type of habitat and thus their habitat or feeding might be specialist. Surely some species are generalist though. Its hard to net field information from anyone - hence the post!
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Jeff
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Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by Jeff »

Todd

Those are interesting hypotheses about a co-evolved system. Unfortunately, the fossil history of Gymnophiona and Amphisbaena are sparse within areas currently occupied by Micrurus. That brings to question the evolution of prey preferences in coral snakes in northern Mexico and the U. S., where the caecilians are long gone, and amphisbaenian fossils are left in places where Cenozoic fossils are best found - the Great Plains and Florida. I evaluated prey in about 175 coral snakes in Louisiana, and found that nearly all prey items are semi-fossorial, small snakes, supplemented with small scincids. Here, Micrurus are not properly fossorial, but are active surface foragers in leaf litter and detritus. They have forsaken skinny aquatic things like amphiuma and Anguilla, but primarily prey on week, elongate terrestrial squamates. Chemosensory trailing remains to be tackled up this way.

Jeff
tarzan
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Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by tarzan »

I haven't been on this site in several years (since the site crashed), but recently came back to check it out, and am happy to find it still thriving.

I thought I would post a couple of pictures I took of a coral snake eating a caecilian, taken in 2007 in Esmeraldas province, Ecuador. I only saw a few coral snakes down there, and this is the only one I saw eating anything. I am not even sure what species of snake or caecilian they are, but surely someone here can identify them. Micrurus sp. and Caecilia sp., if I remember correctly.

Image
Image
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Jeff
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Re: Relations among amphisbaenians, caecilians and coral sna

Post by Jeff »

The coral is Micrurus ancoralis.

Jeff
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