Tiutenko A (2023)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Publication year: 2023
Book Volume: 83
Pages Range: 30–34
Journal Issue: December 2023
Coital biting, a behaviour where the male grabs and holds the female with his mouth before or during copulation, is seldom observed in snakes. It has been reported mainly in North American and some Eurasian colubrids, including the genera Coronella, Drymarchon, Elaphe, Farancia, Lampropeltis, Pantherophis, Pituophis, Sonora, and Zamenis (Tinkle 1951; Gillingham 1974; Lotze 1975; Lewke 1979; Secor 1987; Langford and Borden 2004; Aßmann et al. 2016, Johansen et al. 2022). A comparison of coital bite occurrences with phylogeny of snakes led Senter et al. (2014) to conclude that this behavioural phenomenon is likely to be ancestral for the group they called “Eurasian ratsnake clade Zamenis + (Elaphe + (Coronella + Lampropeltini))” in the family Colubridae. However, the authors of this first-ever study of the evolutionary history of courtship in snakes conceded that the inference that such behaviour is absent in a clade must be treated with caution because in nature such behaviours may not always be observed and may thus remain unrecorded. Also, important information about the biology and behaviour of captive reptiles often remains unknown to the scientific community because hobbyists and commercial breeders often lack contact with academic herpetologists and do not publish their observations. Even when such observations are mentioned in online publications or herpetoculture magazines, they are often overlooked by professional herpetologists. This article reports for the first time a case of coital biting in Montane Egg-eater (Dasypeltis atra)
APA:
Tiutenko, A. (2023). Coital biting in a captive montane egg-eater (Dasypeltis atra). African Journal of Herpetology, 83(December 2023), 30–34.
MLA:
Tiutenko, Arthur. "Coital biting in a captive montane egg-eater (Dasypeltis atra)." African Journal of Herpetology 83.December 2023 (2023): 30–34.
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