List of snakes of Trinidad and Tobago
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This is a list of snakes which have been recorded in Trinidad and Tobago. Forty-seven species have been recorded - forty-four in Trinidad and twenty-one in Tobago, making the snake population of this area by far the most diverse in the Caribbean. Many of these species are South American, most of which are present in Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and several smaller islands. The "Bocas Islands", which lie between Trinidad and Venezuela, in the Bocas del Dragón (Dragons' Mouth), consist of Chacachacare, Monos, Huevos and Gaspar Grande. Several smaller islands lie off Trinidad, but snakes have only been recorded on one of them, Caledonia Island. Snakes have only been recorded on one island off Tobago, Little Tobago.
Only four species are venomous - two Coral Snakes (Micrurus spp.), the Fer-de-lance (Bothrops atrox) and the Bushmaster (Lachesis muta). The Common Coral is found on one of the Bocas Islands (Gaspar Grande). No venomous snakes occur in Tobago.
Contents |
[edit] Family Leptotyphlopidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leptotyphlops albifrons | Ground Puppy | X |
[edit] Family Typhlopidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Helminthrophis sp. [1] | Yellow-headed Ground Puppy | X | |||
Typhlops brongersmianus | Burrowing Snake | X | |||
Typhlops trinitatus [2] | Trinidad Burrowing Snake | X | X |
[edit] Family Aniliidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anilus scytale scytale [3] | Burrowing False Coral; Rouleau | X |
[edit] Family Boidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boa constrictor constrictor | Macajuel, Boa Constrictor | X | X | X [4] [5] | |
Corallus ruschenbergerii | Cascabel Dormillon; Cook's Tree Boa | X | X | ||
Epicrates cenchria maurus | Rainbow Boa | X | X | X [6] [7] | |
Eunectes murinas gigas | Huille, Anaconda | X |
[edit] Family Colubridae
[edit] Subfamily Xenodontinae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Clelia clelia clelia | Black Cribo, Mussurana | X | X [6] [7] | ||
Erythrolamprus aesculapii [3] | False Coral | X | |||
Erythrolamprus bizona | False Coral | X | |||
Erythrolamprus ocellatus [2] | Tobago False Coral, Red Snake | X | |||
Helicops angulatus | Water Mapepire, Brown-banded Water Snake | X | |||
Hydrops triangularis neglectus | Water Coral | X | |||
Liophis cobellus cobellus | Mangrove Snake, Mangrove Mapepire | X | |||
Liophis melanotus nesos [2] | Beh Belle Chemin, Doctor Snake | X | X | X [6] | |
Liophis reginae zweifeli | High Woods Coral | X | X | ||
Oxyrhopus petola petola | False Coral | X | X | ||
Pseudoboa neuwiedii | Ratonel | X | X | X [6] | |
Siphlophis cervinus | Checkerbelly | X | |||
Thamnodynastes sp. | Striped Swamp Snake | X | |||
Tripanurgos compressus | Mapepire De Fe, False Coral | X |
[edit] Subfamily Dipsadinae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atractus trilineatus | Three-lined Ground Snake | X | X | ? [8] | |
Atractus cf. univittatus [9] | Tobago One-lined Snake | X | |||
Dipsas variegata trinitatis [2] | Snail-eating Snake | X | |||
Imantodes cenchoa cenchoa | Mapepire Corde Violon, Fiddle-string Snake | X | X | ||
Leptodeira annulata ashmeadi | False Mapepire, Cat-eyed Night Snake | X | X | X [5] [10] | |
Ninia atrata | Red-nape Snake, Ring Neck Snake | X | X | ||
Sibon nebulata nebulata | Clouded Snake | X | X | X [10] |
[edit] Subfamily Colubrinae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chironius carinatus carinatus | Machete Savane, Yellow Machete | X | |||
Chironius multiventris septentrionalis | Long-tailed Machete Savane | X | |||
Chironius scurrulus [3] | Smooth Machete Savane | X | |||
Drymarchon corais corais | Yellow-tailed Cribo | X | X | X [4] | |
Leptophis ahaetulla coeruleodorus | Lora, Parrot Snake | X | X | ||
Leptophis stimsoni [2] | Grey Lora | X | |||
Mastigodryas boddaerti boddaerti | Machete Couesse | X | X [4] [5] [6] [10] | X [11] | |
Mastigodryas boddaerti dunni [2] | Machete Couesse | X | X [12] | ||
Oxybelis aeneus | Horsewhip | X | X | X [6] [10] | |
Pseustes poecilonotus polylepis | Dos Cocorite | X | |||
Pseustes sulphureus sulphureus | Yellow-bellied Puffing Snake | X | |||
Spilotes pullatus pullatus | Tigre, Tigro | X | X | ||
Tantilla melanocephala | Black-headed Snake | X | X | X [10] |
[edit] Family Elapidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Micrurus lemniscatus diutius | Common Coral Snake | X | X [5] | ||
Micrurus circinalis | Large Coral Snake | X |
[edit] Family Viperidae
Species | Common name | Trinidad | Tobago | Bocas Is. | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bothrops atrox | Mapepire Balsain, Fer-de-lance | X | |||
Lachesis muta muta | Mapepire Zanana, Mapepire Z'Ananas, Bushmaster | X |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Helminthrophis sp. is known from a single collection. It may represent an undescribed species since none of the three described species are known from adjacent portions of Venezuela.
- ^ a b c d e f Endemic to Trinidad and Tobago.
- ^ a b c This species is only known in Trinidad and Tobago from a single collection.
- ^ a b c Recorded from the island of Monos.
- ^ a b c d Recorded from the island of Gaspar Grande.
- ^ a b c d e f Recorded from the island of Chacachacare.
- ^ a b Report has not been confirmed with a specimen.
- ^ Has been reported from the island of Huevos, but Boos considers this record doubtful.
- ^ Atractus cf. univittatus is known from a single collection in Tobago. It has affinities with A. univittatus, but may be an undescribed species.
- ^ a b c d e Recorded from the island of Huevos.
- ^ Recorded from Caledonia Island.
- ^ Recorded from the island of Little Tobago.
[edit] See also
- Snake
- Ecology of Trinidad and Tobago
- List of birds of Trinidad and Tobago
- List of Butterflies of Tobago
[edit] References
Boos, Hans E.A. (2001). The snakes of Trinidad and Tobago. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX. ISBN 1-58544-116-3.
[edit] External links
- Medicinal and ethnoveterinary remedies of hunters in Trinidad from BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (BioMed Central).