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

(Figs. 11.4 and 24.2)

First record in the Caatinga. It is distributed in states of Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, and Bahia. All records are in highlands with at least 500 m elevation. It is also recorded in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal ( Marques et al. 2001, 2005; Nogueira et al. 2010, 2011). Several records inside Caatinga, including those in São Caitano range (Pernambuco) and Mata do Pau Ferro (Paraíba), are associated to forest enclaves and indicate that this species is a forest dweller. It has semi-arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds mostly on frogs ( Marques et al. 2001, 2005).