Micrurus aff. lemniscatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Guedes, Thaís B., Nogueira, Cristiano & Marques, Otavio A. V., 2014, Diversity, natural history, and geographic distribution of snakes in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 3863 (1), pp. 1-93 : 27

Micrurus aff. lemniscatus (Linnaeus, 1758) “Cobra-de-coral, Coral-da-legítima”

(Fig. 23.3)

It was recorded in the states of Ceará and Bahia. The records are in altitudes between 422 and 760 m elevation. Apparently, this snake has a restricted distribution to the highlands of Diamantina and Araripe Plateaus. The nominal species M. lemniscatus is distributed in Amazon Forest, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Argôlo 2004; Nogueira et al. 2010). Inside the Caatinga, this species may inhabit forested areas in highlands, and it has been previously found on arboreal and bushy caatinga vegetation in the Araripe highlands, Ceará State ( Loebmann & Haddad 2010). In the Cerrado region M. lemniscatus is found mostly in semideciduous forest areas, but not in the dominant, open savannas (Nogueira et al. 2011). It has fossorial habits, is nocturnal and diurnal, and feeds mostly on elongated vertebrates ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Marques et al. 2001; Argôlo 2004; Marques et al. 2005).