The Herpetological Journal

Authors: Vinícius Jia Wei Tsai, Roullien Henrique Martins & Nelson Rufino de Albuquerque

Abstract: Caudal pseudoautotomy, defined as intervertebral tail breakage without regeneration, has been reported in several snake taxa; however, its frequency and association with biological factors remain poorly documented in some arboreal species. We investigated the occurrence of caudal pseudoautotomy in the Neotropical colubrid Leptophis marginatus based on 151 museum specimens. We assessed sexual dimorphism using adult individuals with intact tails and tested for differences in the frequency of pseudoautotomy between males and females. Caudal pseudoautotomy affected 58 (38.4%) of the 151 L. marginatus specimens. We did not detect significant differences in pseudoautotomy frequency between males and females. We detected sexual dimorphism in snout-vent length and tail length in L. marginatus, with males attaining larger body and tail sizes. These results provide the first quantitative assessment of caudal pseudoautotomy in L. marginatus and suggest that tail breakage is a common defensive trait in this species.

Keywords: tail breakage, antipredator behaviour, museum specimens, sexual dimorphism, arboreal snake