Acta Herpetologica 4(2): 171-175, 2009 First record of salamander predation by a Liophis (Wagler, 1830) snake in the Venezuelan Andes Luis Felipe Esqueda1, Marco Natera-Mumaw2, Enrique La Marca3 1 Investigador Asociado, Colección de Anfibios y Reptiles, Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales, Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida 5101, Venezuela and Postgrado de Áreas Naturales y de Conservación de la Naturaleza, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Corresponding author. E-mail: luisfesqueda@gmail.com 2 Museo de Vertebrados, Universidad Experimental Rómulo Gallegos, Apartado 205, San Juan de Los Morros, Guárico 2301, Venezuela. E-mail: mnateram@yahoo.com 3 Laboratorio de Biogeografía, Escuela de Geografía, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales. Universidad de Los Andes, Apartado Postal 116, Mérida 5101-A, Venezuela. E-mail: enrique.lamarca @gmail.com Submitted on: 2008, 3rd November; revised on 2009, 1st July; accepted on 2009, 26th August. Abstract. Information available so far is exceedingly meagre about the diet of the snakes included in the genus Liophis, one of the most diverse groups that inhabit ter- restrial ecosystems of South America. For the first time is documented the predation of a salamander by Liophis from Venezuela, including a brief overview on the altera- tion of montane and submontane Andean ecosystem and their effect on the natural dynamic. Keywords. Bolitoglossa guaramacalensis, Liophis reginae zweifeli, predation, Venezue- lan Andes. Currently, fifty two species of Liophis (Wagler, 1830), are recognized, among which we can find a wide variety of prey items, that include amphibians (also eggs and tad- poles), invertebrates, lizards, fishes, birds, and small rodents (Roze, 1966; Duellman, 1978; Chippaux, 1986; Dixon, 1989; Michaud and Dixon, 1989; Cunha and Nascimento, 1993; Martins and Oliveira, 1999; Boos, 2001; Dixon and Tipton, 2003; Savage, 2002; Esqueda et al., 2007). Although there is a considerable advance on their taxonomy and biogeogra- phy, information on their feeding habits is scarce, especially for those species that occur in northern South America. Within the material deposited in the Biogeography Laboratory of the University of Los Andes (ULABG), we found an adult male of Liophis reginae zweif- eli Roze, 1959 (ULABG 2765), coming from the road Potreritos de Cendé to Miquimú, Municipio Carache, Trujillo state, Venezuela, which had in its stomach a partially digest- ed adult specimen of a salamander, which we identified as Bolitoglossa guaramacalensis Schargel, García-Pérez, Smith (2002) (Fig. 1). 172 L.F. Esqueda, M. Natera-Mumaw and E. La Marca Predation of plethodontids in Liophis snakes has been little documented. Michaud and Dixon (1989) made a list of prey items for twenty species in the genus, finding two of them as potential predators of salamanders: L. reginae (Linnaeus, 1758) and L. epinephalus Cope, 1862, which suggests that predation on plethodontids in this group is rare or not well documented. They assessed the predation of Bolitoglossa altamazonica by L. reginae (Cope, 1864), while in L. epinephalus, the species of salamander was not specified. Fol- lowing an ecogeographical approach, it is quite possible that in the first case the appropri- ate name for the snake species is L. reginae semilineata (Wagler, 1824) (see Martins and Oliveira, 1999: 40-41), while the salamander may well correspond to what is currently known as Bolitoglossa paraensis (Unterstein, 1930) (see Parra-Olea et al., 2004). Salamanders display an ample repertory of antipredatory strategies, with signifi- cant interspecific and/or intraspecific variability as a response to different predators (Whitemann and Wissinger, 1991; García-Paris and Debam, 1995). B. guaramacalensis prefers more terrestrial places (associated with rocks near streams), than other arboreal species (associated to epiphytic bromeliads). According to Schargel et al. (2002), some individuals had a regenerated tail, indicating a potential importance about the autotomy of the tail as an antipredatory behavior. Our voucher salamander discovered inside the stomach contents of a L. r. zweifeli snake suggests that it was gobbled head-first and with- out loosing the tail, suggesting that tail autotomy may not always be used as a defense mechanism (it is likely that this poorly documented behavior is dependent on other vari- ables not even clearly defined). L. reginae has diurnal habits, contrary with the nocturnal activity of Bolitoglossa salamanders. A similar case has been documented for Bolitoglossa heiroreias Greenbaum, 2004, where a specimen was regurgitated by a Rhadinaea monte- cristi Mertens, 1952 (Greenbaum, 2004), a colubrid with similar habits to L. reginae. The Fig. 1. Dorsal and ventral views of Liophis reginae zweifeli (ULABG 2765). Note the partially digested specimen of Bolitoglossa guaramacalensis. 173Salamander predation by a Liophis salamanders in both cases seem to have an arboreal behavior during the night and a ter- restrial one by day, the latter most probably associated with salamander refugia). In these cases, perhaps the differential temporal and spatial distribution may help these salaman- ders to avoid predation by terrestrial and diurnal snake predators. Of the six species of salamanders recognized in Venezuela, however, only Bolito- glossa borburata Trapido, 1942, seems to be eminently arboreal (Manzanilla et al., 1996; Barrios-Amorós and Fuentes, 1999; Schargel et al., 2002; Lotzkat, 2007). All other conge- ners present similar behavior to the one exhibited by B. guaramacalensis, although little is known about other aspects of their natural history. This voucher constitutes the first known instance of predation of Bolitoglossa by snakes in Venezuela. Predation on these vertebrates could likely be occasional in the diet of some terrestrial snakes, but it may be more frequent due to land conversion of natu- ral habitats by antropic effect (agricultural sowing and/or pasture for sowing, deforestation of the forest cover for logging with different purposes, use of not controlled fires, etc.). Salamander may then be exposed to more open habitats. According to the level of change, the same could drastically affect the prey-predator dynamics (e.g., several examined speci- mens of B. guaramacalensis were found in open places during the day, near roads, increas- ing the likelihood of predation). A recent study on anuran predation considers Liophis as prey-specific predators even though, in general, the genus might be considered generalist and/or opportunist, due to its amplitude of prey types (Toledo et al., 2006). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to Juan Elías García for his assistance in the field. To Luis Felipe Toledo and Pietro Battiston for providing pertinent literature. Carlos Navas commented on a preliminary ver- sion of the manuscript. Fig. 2. A living individual of Bolitoglossa guaramacalensis. 174 L.F. Esqueda, M. Natera-Mumaw and E. La Marca REFERENCES Barrios-Amorós, C.L., Fuentes, O.R. (1999): Bolitoglossa spongai. Una nueva especie de salamandra (Caudata: Plethodontidae) de los Andes venezolanos, con comentarios sobre el género en Venezuela. Acta Científic. Venez. 19: 9-19. Boos, H.E.A (2001): The snakes of Trinidad and Tobago. Texas A&M Press, College Sta- tion. Chippaux, J.P. (1986): Les serpentes de la Guayane Francaise. Faune Tropicale XXVII, París, Francia. Cunha, O.R., Nascimento, F.P. (1993): Ofidios da Amazônia. As cobras da regiâo leste do Pará. Bol. Mus. Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Ser. Zool. 9: 1-191. Dixon, J.R. (1989): A key and checklist to the neotropical snake genus Liophis with coun- try list and maps. Smithsonian Herp. Inform. Serv. 79: 1-28. 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Road Potreritos de Cendé-Miquimú, Municipio Carache, Trujillo state (ULABG 2765); Vigirima, sector El Guapo, Parque Nacional San Esteban, Municipio Guacara, Carabobo state (ULABG 4139); La Roncona, Municipio Chiguará, Mérida state (ULABG 3772). Liophis epinephalus opisthotaenius. Road from La Grita until crossroads Bailadores-Pregonero, near Hotel La Montaña, Municipio Jáuregui, Táchira state (ULABG 2148); La Hechicera, Municipio Libertador, Mérida state (ULABG 6699). Bolitoglossa guaramacalensis. ULABG 2774. Trujillo state, Municipio Carache, on road Potre- ritos de Cendé-Miquimú, Hacienda El Rincón, 2275 m a.s.l.