Chironius carinatus (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 : 28

Chironius carinatus (Linnaeus, 1758) “Cobra-de-cipó”

(Fig. 24.1)

It was recorded in states of Piauí, Ceará, Alagoas, and Bahia in Caatinga, in areas with low altitudes (up to 368 m elevation). It also occurs in Atlantic and Amazon forests ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Marques et al. 2001). Inside the Caatinga, the records are sparse but this species seems to occur in forested areas or in dense arboreal caatinga. Freitas and Silva (2007) comment the presence of this species in open areas of Sergipe State, but we cannot confirm these records because we found no voucher specimens for this area in scientific collections. It has semi-arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds mostly on frogs ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Martins & Oliveira 1998).