Discovery of the Black-headed Ground Snake Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus (Jan, 1862) in Cyprus (Reptilia: Colubridae)

Karin Tamar; Hans Jörg Wiedl; Erez Maza; Daniel Jablonski; Shai Meiri

doi:10.1080/09397140.2020.1757914

Discovery of the Black-headed Ground Snake Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus (Jan, 1862) in Cyprus (Reptilia: Colubridae)

Karin Tamar^*, Hans Jörg Wiedl, Erez Maza, Daniel Jablonski, Shai Meiri

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Zoology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We identified two snakes from Paphos district in south-western Cyprus as belonging to the secretive genus Rhynchocalamus. They represent the first record of these snakes in Cyprus. Morphological features and mitochondrial 16S DNA sequences suggest that these specimens belong to R. melanocephalus, a species widely distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The genetic similarity to a specimen from northern Israel may imply either a human-mediated dispersal or a natural colonization. These observations thus raise the number of snake species known to occur in Cyprus to 12.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	118-123
Number of pages	6
Journal	Zoology in the Middle East
Volume	66
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2020.1757914
State	Published - 2 Apr 2020

Keywords

Distribution
Middle East
mitochondrial DNA sequences
range extension

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title = "Discovery of the Black-headed Ground Snake Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus (Jan, 1862) in Cyprus (Reptilia: Colubridae)",

abstract = "We identified two snakes from Paphos district in south-western Cyprus as belonging to the secretive genus Rhynchocalamus. They represent the first record of these snakes in Cyprus. Morphological features and mitochondrial 16S DNA sequences suggest that these specimens belong to R. melanocephalus, a species widely distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The genetic similarity to a specimen from northern Israel may imply either a human-mediated dispersal or a natural colonization. These observations thus raise the number of snake species known to occur in Cyprus to 12.",

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AU - Maza, Erez

AU - Jablonski, Daniel

AU - Meiri, Shai

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AB - We identified two snakes from Paphos district in south-western Cyprus as belonging to the secretive genus Rhynchocalamus. They represent the first record of these snakes in Cyprus. Morphological features and mitochondrial 16S DNA sequences suggest that these specimens belong to R. melanocephalus, a species widely distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The genetic similarity to a specimen from northern Israel may imply either a human-mediated dispersal or a natural colonization. These observations thus raise the number of snake species known to occur in Cyprus to 12.

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KW - mitochondrial DNA sequences

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Discovery of the Black-headed Ground Snake Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus (Jan, 1862) in Cyprus (Reptilia: Colubridae)

Abstract

Keywords

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