Acta Herpetologica 10(2): 149-153, 2015 ISSN 1827-9635 (print) © Firenze University Press ISSN 1827-9643 (online) www.fupress.com/ah DOI: 10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-17170 Eryx jaculus (Linnaeus, 1758): a new species for the Italian herpetofauna (Squamata: Erycidae) Gianni Insacco1, Filippo Spadola2, Salvatore Russotto3, Dino Scaravelli4 1 Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Via degli Studi 9, 97013 Comiso (RG), Italy. Corresponding author. E-mail: g.insacco@comune. comiso.rg.it 2 Museo della Fauna del Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie dell’Università degli Studi di Messina, Polo Universitario SS. Annunziata. I-98100 Messina, Italy 3 Contrada Grassura Mollaka Faia, s.n. - 92027 Licata (AG), Italy 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Veterinarie, Università di Bologna, via Tolara di Sopra 50, Ozzano Emilia (BO) e ST.E.R.N.A., Museo Ornitologico “F. Foschi” Forlì, via Pedriali 12, 47121 Forlì, Italy Submitted on 2015, 9th October; revised on 2015, 16th October; accepted on 2015, 23rd October Editor: Sebastiano Salvidio Abstract. The presence of a population of the Javelin sand boa Eryx jaculus in Sicilia is here reported for the first time. Observations of live snakes and road-killed individuals have been obtained from the region of Licata (Province of Agrigento), in the southern part of Sicily. Data on the distribution and pholidosis from four specimens are presented. The large area of occurrence of the snake in Sicily, that bears also a local vernacular name suggests an ancient origin of the colonization. The presence of this species, increases the numbers of snakes living in Italy. Keywords. Eryx jaculus, Sicily, Italy, new record. Eryx jaculus (Linnaeus, 1758), commonly known as the Javelin sand boa, has been recently assigned to the Erycidae family (Pyron et al., 2014). Javelin sand boa can be found in Southern Balkans, on many islands in the Aegean Sea, Transcaucasia, Eastern Ciscaucasia, North Africa and Middle East (Tokar and Obst, 1993; Gasc et al.,1997; Sindaco et al., 2013). It is a medium-sized species that usually grows up to 30-60 cm of total length (Schleich et al., 1996 ; Fig. 1A). The Javelin sand boa prefers sandy and loose soils where it can easily burrow holes for breeding and sheltering. It is a predominantly crepuscular species (Boulenger, 1913). It feeds on lizards, mice and snails. It is an ovoviviparous species; female specimens generate 6-12 eggs which hatch directly in the oviduct, and deliver live offspring in July (Fuhn and Vancea, 1961; Fuhn, 1969). On 19 June 2006 a local TV station “TV Alfa Licata”, reported the first sighting of an adult individual, in Lica- ta, Agrigento. Subsequently, a series of field research and interviews to locals allowed to collect data on the pres- ence of this species in the Licata territory, along the Sal- so river valley where 6 specimens were located. For the classification was followed Arnold and Ovenden (2002). Before the present study, only anecdotal information were available (cf. Tokar and Obst, 1993), and the only muse- um specimen (Natural History Museum of Florence) was considered mislabeled (Razzetti and Sindaco, 2006). Corine Land Cover layers, provided by the Regional Environmental Office of the Sicily Region, were elabo- rated using Arcgis (9.2 ESRI) to categorize habitat types in the investigated area. A buffer area of 2000 m around each collection point was established and the third hier- archical level in Corine Land Cover Classes (Bossard et al., 2000) was used to evaluate the percentage of each cat- egory. During our study two specimens were found dead on the road, one found drowned in a shaft and three were captured alive. These were kept for a few days in captivity, in order to take measurements and pictures and 150 Insacco et alii then released in the same location where they have been captured. Two dead specimens were preserved in the col- lection of the Comiso Natural History Museum (MSNC inventory 4501: 1, 2). The location data for each speci- men are listed below. 1. adult, 19/06/2009; Lat. 37°6’46.44”N; Long. 13°56’20.35”E; Via Londra, Licata (AG); Rif.: you- tube.com – “TV Alfa Licata, la città e i suoi proble- mi, la vipera”. 2. TL 422 mm; adult male; gr. 76; 09/06/2015; Lat. 37°9’18.23”N; Long. 13°53’32.53”E; Contrada Conca, Licata (AG); captured and released, Fig. 1A, B, C); Fig. 2A, Fig. 3A. 3. TL 445 mm; adult male; gr. 78; 13/06/2015; 37°8’7.08”N; 13°51’57.31”E; Contrada S. Francesco di Paola, Licata (AG); captured and released, Fig. 2B; Fig. 3B. 4. TL 190 mm; juvenile female; 13/06/2015; 37°8’7.05”N, 13°51’57.19”E; Contrada S. Francesco di Paola, Licata (AG); found drowned in a shaft, largely decomposed. Fig. 3C. 5. TL 215 mm; juvenile female; gr. 9, 03/07/2015; 37°8’7.21”N, 13°51’57.13”E; Contrada S. Francesco di Paola, Licata (AG); captured and released; Fig. 2C; Fig. 3D. 6. TL 510 mm; adult female; 07/07/2015; Lat. 37°8’26.51”N; Long. 13°54’54.57”E; Contrada Calan- nino, Licata (AG); Rif. coll. MSNC 4501-1; run over by a car, mummified, preserved in the museum in Comiso; Fig. 3E. 7. TL 585 mm; adult female; gr. 173; 21/07/2015; Lat. 37°7’47.29”N; Long. 13°52’54.49”E; Poggio Cuterizzio – SS 115; Licata (AG); Rif. coll. MSNC 4501-2; run over by a car, preserved in the museum in Comiso; Fig. 2D; Fig. 3F. The area where Eryx jaculus was observed extends for about 40 km2 along the south coastal area of Sicily, in the Gela Gulf. It is an alluvial plain called “la Piana” cre- ated by the action of the river Salso and it is mostly flat with small hills. This geological substrate is mainly con- stituted of montmorillonite clays that greatly dries out during the xeric season and cracks creating characteristic deep fractures in the arid soil. The local climate is typi- cally Mediterranean with mild and rainy winters and hot dry summers, with a constant marine breeze. The average temperature in Licata is 17.7 °C with annual precipitation up to 405 mm (climate-date.org). From the analysis of the Corine land cover data, in the buffer area the sighting points were mostly located in not irrigated arable lands (77,93%), followed by natural pastures and dry meadows (9,59%), agricultural mosaics (3,65%), and agricultural area with natural elements (3,11%). Meristical analysis conducted on four specimens are listed in Fig. 2, following Eskandarzadeh et al. (2013), wconfirms they are indeed Eryx jaculus - the specimen B, Fig. 1. Eryx jaculus adulte, male, from southern Sicily. A) view front body; B) details of the ventral body with claw-like spurs; C) ventral view of the mental groove. Specimen PIN BEN BE A 2 3 7 B 3 3 7 C 2 3 7 D 2 3 7 Fig. 2. Meristic scale counts of the head in specimens of Eryx jac- ulus from Sicily. Number of scales posterior to internasal (PIN); Number of scales between eye and nasal (BEN); Number of scales between eyes (BE). 151Eryx jaculus in Sicily which has 3 PIN scales, is considered within the intraspe- cific variability (Boulenger, 1913; Tokar and Obst, 1993). Considering the data collected and occasional obser- vations of E. jaculus by local people (Table 1), there are information since 1930 in this area. The high frequency of sightings, as well as the presence of local vernacular names for the species (Apita, Aspit surdu, Spitu) strongly sug- gests that this species was not recently introduced. Given its nocturnal habits and very elusive nature, it is likely that this species simply went unnoticed for a long time. Ancient introductions of snakes for religious cults or for war rituals were also proposed by Masseti and Zuffi (2011), with a particular reference to the Greeks who inhabited the area for a long time and fought two impor- tant battles on those lands in 405 A.C. and in 310 A.C. (Di Blasi, 1844). The presence of a consolidate population in this Sicilian valley, composed by adults and juveniles is underlining the biogeographic importance and the pri- ority of conservation of this species. Also it is necessary to highlight that being the E. jaculus a protected rep- Fig. 3. Eryx jaculus founds in Licata (AG). A) male, alive in C.da Conca; B) male, alive in C.da S. F. di Paola; C) juvenile, female, drowned inside of well in C.da S. F. di Paola; D) juvenile female, alive in C.da S. Francesco di Paola; E) mummified individual in C.da Calannino; F) female, in Poggio Cuterizzio. 152 Insacco et alii tile listed in the Appendix IV of the 92/43/CEE Direc- tive, in Appendix II of CITES, and Appendix III of the Bern Convention, its presence in Sicily calls for a prompt implementation of the relevant regulatory framework and safeguards activities as provided for under the law for the protected wild fauna in Italy. The range of the species in nearby areas in Sicily is also under study by the authors. A genetic study will be realized to verify subspecies attri- bution and identify the possible origin of this population. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Thanks to all the locals living in Licata who helped us by reporting precious sightings and putting forward suggestions; in particular Luigi Caci, Epifanio Bonelli, Rosa e Calogero Porrello, Giuseppe Casa. Also thanks to Morena Priori for linguistic assistance and Bruno Zava who provided useful suggestions. Since the spe- cies was not known in Italy, research permits were not issued. Finally we thank two anonymous reviewers that improved a first draft of the paper. REFERENCES Arnold, N., Ovenden, D. (2002): Collins field guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe. Col- lins, London. Bossard, M., Feranec, J., Otahel, J. (2000): CORINE land cover technical guide. Addendum 2000. Technical report N° 40, European Environment Agency. Boulenger, G.A. (1913): The snakes of Europe. Methusen and Co. Ltd, London. Di Blasi, G.E. (1844): Storia del Regno di Sicilia, Vol I. Edizioni Dafni Catania, Distribuzione Tringale Edi- tore, stamperia Oretea Palermo. Eskandarzadeh, N., Darvish, J., Rastegar-Pouyani, E., Ghassemzadeh, F. (2013): Reevaluation of the taxo- nomic status of sand boas of the genus Eryx (Daudin, 1803) (Serpentes: Boidae) in northeastern Iran. Turk. J. Zool. 37: 348-356. Fuhn I.E. (1969): Broaste, serpi, sopârle. Ed. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti. Fuhn, I.E., Vancea, Şt. (1961): Fauna R.P.R. Reptilia (Ţestoase, Şopârle, Şerpi). 9(2). Editura Academiei R.P.R., Bucureşti. Gasc, J.P., Cabela, A., Crnobrnja-Isailovic, Dolmen, D., Grossenbacher, K., Haffner, P., Lescure, J., Martens, H., Marinez Rica, J.P., Maurin, H., Oliveira, M.E., Sofianidou, T.S., Veith, M., Zuiderwijk, A. (1997): Atlas of amphibians and reptiles in Europe. Soci- etas Europaea Herpetologica et Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris. Masseti, M, Zuffi, M.A.L. (2011): Hypotheses on the ori- gin of the population of asp viper, Vipera aspis hugyi Schinz, 1833, of the island of Montecristo, in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea (Tuscan archipelago, Italy). Table 1. Sightings localities of Eryx jaculus by local people, since 1930 to 2013. Date Locality and Position Number of specimens Age/Sex Name of observer 2006-2013 Contrada San Francesco di Paola, Licata; 37°8’7.15°N, 13°51’57.27°E 10, alive adults Salvatore Russotto 1999-2013 Contrada Grasciura, Licata; 37°7’48.32°N 13°52’31.17°E 8, alive adults Salvatore Russotto 2004 Torre S. Nicola, Licata; 37°6’46.70°N 13°52’8.01°E 1, dead adult female Salvatore Russotto 1986-1991 Contrada Pozzillo, Licata; 37°6’47.70°N 13°52’59.47°E 2, alive adult females Luigi Caci 1982-1987 Contrada Renella, Licata; 37°8’25.16°N 13°55’59.98°E 4, alive adults Epifanio Bonelli 1987 Contrada Poggio Cuterizzio, Licata; 37°7’46.84°N 13°52’52.83°E 1, alive adult Epifanio Bonelli 1984 Contrada San Francesco di Paola, Licata; 37°8’7.15°N, 13°51’57.27°E 1, alive adults Salvatore Russotto 1980 Contrada Pisciotto, Licata; 37°7’44.17°N 13°50’57.94°E 1, alive adult Epifanio Bonelli 1930-1970 Contrada Renella, Licata; 37°8’37.72°N 13°55’44.77°E numerous, alive adults Giuseppe Casa 1930-1960 Contrada Culazzo, Licata; 37°8’59.71°N 13°55’36.86°E numerous, alive adults Giuseppe Casa 153Eryx jaculus in Sicily Br. Herpetol. Bull. 117: 1-9. Pyron, R.A., Reynolds, R.G., Burbrink, F.T. (2014): A tax- onomic revision of boas (Serpentes, Boidae). Zootaxa 3846: 249-260. Razzetti, E., Sindaco, R. 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