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- Title
A Case of Albinism in the Common Earth Snake (Geophis hoffmanni (Peters, 1859)) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) in the Caribbean Lowlands of Costa Rica.
- Authors
MANUEL MORA, JOSÉ; PÉREZ ARRIETA, JOSÉ ALBERTO; MARÍN, PABLO; CHAVES, GERARDO; LÓPEZ, LUCÍA I.
- Abstract
Snakes of the genus Geophis are a typical Mesoamerican faunal element, where the Common Earth snake (Geophis hoffmanni) is one of the more widely distributed species. It is found in Costa Rica on the Atlantic lowlands, Pacific central and southwestern lowlands, the Central Valley, and slopes of the cordilleras up to 1200 m a.s.l. On July 2, 2021 we encountered a juvenile Common Earth snake in a semi-urban area in La Unión, Guápiles, Limón, Costa Rica. This species has a uniform dark gray to black dorsum and a white venter, but all scales of the young snake we found were pinkish, without any contrasting section of the body, but with clearly defined head shields. Based on the coloration of our individual, its pink eyes, and not having more evidence of the causes of the anomaly, we determined it as albinism. Several albino dipsadid snakes have been reported from South America, here we add Geophis hoffmanni to this list. Although this species is nocturnal, recent analysis have noted that correlates of ecological attributes of snakes and major color aberrations are not clearly established. Even though Geophis hoffmanni is a common species with a wide distribution, this is the first report of a chromatic disorder in this species. These anomalies are rare in nature and reporting their occurrence increases the knowledge of the natural history of species.
- Subjects
ALBINOS &; albinism; SNAKES; NOCTURNAL animals
- Publication
Caribbean Journal of Science, 2022, Vol 52, Issue 1, p108
- ISSN
0008-6452
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.18475/cjos.v52i1.a8