334 spread species that isan active forage, has, over ts ‘wide range. the “epporeanty” to expla eiarge num ber of pty species. de conse move Psy tt than any other Hisparolan colubrid, bce ober Hispaniola colubrid preys large on As are fevlany A. cytes Somewhat sarpisngly noine vertebrates were found in & igertie tact. However, xamination of ca 2500 bold, Copidephiid, and colubrid snakes colleced on islande from the ichamassouth to Dominica has failed yields cing Invertebrate prey teas I ie possible thatthe ubtge ‘tous distsbuton of anoles troughout mest heb {ats ina wide range of izes and fequently in high densities, pecs invertebrate exploiton. Onty the stelle sland of le de ln Gonive produce’ di tinct trophic deren froin the man Ziaadeample, but larger sample sizes from other stele land Io- ‘ales may show similar divergences Im summary, Anilopis persjrona io a diurnal, sround-dwelling, active forger that over fis wae SE waae Suey of prey species bel pedoce: ‘anti lsardsofthe genus Anois eciferstephicaly from other Hispaniotn colorido Ui wide vanes) a prey taxa een, and more iy is Plottaon of Eletheradactyins ane Sphaeroatyn Pecally by young (ie. small individuals isinGlar Ioothershidied lspanolan colubrid in that # con ‘Sumes mos frequenty those prey species that are the ‘oat geographically and ecologically widespeeedand that otcar inthe highest relive abundances en lemon, 196te; Henderson and Schwartz, 1986 em ‘denon etal, 19878). ‘Acknowledgments. —We thank personnel at the mu- seums which supplied specimens of Antillophis:Rich- ad G. Zweifel (AMNH) and Jose P. Rosado and Pere Alberch (MCZ). We have benefitted from comment's by Gary S. Casper, Max A. Nickerson and Richard A. Sajdak on earlier versions of this manuscript. Chri= ‘tne Coradini typed several drafts of the manaseript, and we appreciate her efforts. Henderson's recent feld ‘work on Hispaniola has been generously funded by Friends of the Milwaukee Public Museum (through ‘M-Kenneth Starr and Robert R. Rathburn) ‘Lermearune Crre> Frayz.R.ANDD.GIccA. 1982. Observations onthe Taian snake Anti wien. Her pope HENDERSON. R.W._ 1982. Trophic elatonships and Toraging strategies of some New World treecnakes Cpls Ong roma). Arphibie Repl 19642, The dicts of Hispaniolan colubrid snakes [Introduction and prey gener. Osco 62234-2398. oor ai A" 1psth985), The dit ofthe Hispaniolan ‘sake Hyparhgneus fro (Colubridae) Amphibia Reptilia 3367-371 7 T-A NOSE HAN, JA. OTTNWALDER AND ‘A Seiiwasrz. 1967a. On the dit ofthe bes pt ‘als sits on Hispaiols, with notes on ord and E graciis. Amphibia Reptilia (9}251-296. as A. Scuarce. 1986. The dict of the NOTES Hispaniola colubrid snake Darigtomis heetiona. Copeia 1985:529-531, ——, AND TA. NOBSHEEIALIN. 1987H, Food habits of three colubrid tree snakes (genus Lrmmacon spin erpecigia 42:20 Mac, V.J. 1970. West Indian xenodontine colu- ‘rid snakes: Their probable origin, phylogeny, and ea eRe Bull MusComp. Zeal ai-54 SADAK, R.A, AND R. W. HINDERSON. 1982 Notes fon the eggs and young of Antllophis paoirone sy. gius (Reptilia Serpentes, Colubridae). Florida Se. 5(9):200-204. Scawanrz, A. 1980. The herpetogeography of His- ‘West Indios. Stud. Fauna Curagso and Carib IL. (189)86-127. ~ AND R. W. HENDERSON. 1985. A guide to the {identification of the amphibians and reptiles of the West Indias exclusive of Hispaniola. Milwaa- ee Public Mus, pp. -vili + 1-165. aNd R TroMas, 1975. A checklist of West Indian amphibians end reptiles. Carnegie Mus. Hispaniolan snakes of the genus Dromicus (Colubridae). Rev. Biol. Trop. 1358-83. “Accepted: 7 May 1986. FE CARS Ra pte Predation by Loxocemus bicolor on the ‘Eggs of Ctenosaura similis and Iguana iguana Jost Mi. Mona B. Escuela de Ciencias ambiente, Uni- ‘ersidad Nacional, Heredia Coste Ric. LLaxocenus bicolor is primitive snake of uncertain phylogenetic relationships (Greene and Burghardt, 1978). Recently it was considered to belong to the Laxocemidae (McDowell, 1975), Boidae (Willard, 1977), Xenopeltinae (Dowling nd Duellman, 1978), and Py- ‘thonidae (Alvarez del Toro, 1982). Moreover, litle is ‘known of its natural history. Laracemas bicolor is P= -marly foscorial (Alvarez del Toro, 1982) anda Thave ‘observed were seen at night. Mora and Robinson (1984) reported predation by L bicolor on the eggs of the ‘olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelysoloacee), and Greene (1985) found two teiid lizard and two rodents in the stomachs of museum specimens. Here I report that ‘the eggs of large iguanid lizards may be seaconally important in its dist, based on observations made at Rafael Lucas Rodriguez Caballero Wildlife Refuge, Palo Verde, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. “Iguanas and Clenozonra similis often share nest ing tunnela at this site (Mora, unpubl obs). On sep- arate occasions, two L. bicolor were seen entering nest Jing tunnels of C. similis in March 1983 (A. Villareal, ‘pers. comm). Trails thought to be made by this snake {rere found in three tunnel entrances of Cis nestsNOTES (0n 26 March 1984. On this same dat aL. bicolor (132 cm TL) was found within a tuxnel of I iguens, 3p- proximately 1'm from the entrance: On 27 March 1964, at 2030 h, a. bicolor (138 ean TL) was captured while enteringa tunnel of sms Another bicolor (140 cm TL) sas found in a tunnel of shared nest Feces ffom the fst snake included the shells of 32 C. sims eggs, and feces from the second snake con tained the shells of 231. jguma and the shells of four .sinils eggs. For both snakes, hells made wp about 95% of feces contents; the remainder was unidenti- liable, Eight bicolor were found in or near C. cis and I. iuma nests in 1985, ‘Consumption of reptile eggs is common in several genera of colubrid and elapid snakes throughout the ‘world (eg. Phulloriynclus, Cemophore, Uminicaga) bat ‘thas aot been reported previously i any primitive snake (Greene, 1983). Mora and Rebinson (1968) ob served L. bicalor to envelope ses turtle (Lepidocelye) eggroneata time with about two loopsof te anterior third ofits trunk; the coils were made with the enter toward the snake's head. Such predation, described by Willard’s (1977) “Category 1” consticting behay- jor, was more categorically defined asa general com streting pattern for boids (Greene and Bargharct, 1978). The behavior of captive L bicolor eating eBas £f-C.siils was different In two oF thuee attempts the snake managed to bite the egg, push it against ‘hebody with its mouth, and swallow ft Occasionally an egg was broken in the process of ingestion, but the enake ate it rapidly and there was Lite loss of the contents. Once an embryo fell out ofa damaged eg; the snake ate the egg and apparently saw the embryo, but did mot eat it Instead, it searched for, found, andate additional eggs. Perhaps the difference in behavior when eating turtle and C.snilis eggs 1S ‘caused by size differences If so, the behavior of L. bicolor eating Iguana eggs (not observed) might re- semble that of eating turtle eggs, because these eggs ae similar in size, “Lexacemus bicolor is apparently very efficient at lo- cating and removing the eggs of Lepitochlys oecen, gun iguana and Cleosaura soi Numerous other species of egg-laying reptiles occur within its range. such that eggs may constitute one of is principle food Acinotoledgments —1 thank Carlos Valerio, Michael ‘McCoy and expecially Maria L. Di Mare and Harry ‘Greene for thei help in manuscript This study was financed by the National University, ere- dia, Costa Rica, research project No. 780285 (Wildlife cology and management in Costa Ria) ‘rmarone Crisp ALVAREZDELToRO,M, 1982. Los reptiles de Chiapas. 32 ed. Instituto de Historia Natural. Tuxtla Gur tiécrez, Chiapas, México. 248 pp. Dowunc, H. G, AND W.E Dusinan. 1978. Syo- ‘tematic Herpetology: A Synopsis of Familice and “Higher Categories. Hise Publications, New York (anpoginated). Gum, H.W. 1983. Dietary correlates ofthe origin and radiation of snakes. Amer. Zool. 23:431—41. aN GM. BunceiaRor. 1978. Behavior and 335 phylogeny: Constriction in ancient and modera Snakes Schence 20074007. ‘MeDowsti, SB. 1975. A catalogue of the snakes of ‘New Guinea and the Solomons, with special ref- crence!o those in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Par I. Anilioides and Pythoninae. J. exp. 9:1~ 50. MoBA, J. M, ano D.C. Romnson. 1984. Predation ‘of saa turtle eggs (Eepdochelys) by the snake Lox ‘ems bicolor Cope. Rev. Biol. Top. S2:161-162. ‘WuLan,D.E. 1977, Consiicting methods of sakes, Copeia 197379-382. Accepted: 21 May 1986. eer of opto Vo. 21, Ne yp. 395-907, 1987 ‘Cpr 98 Sy so te Sd of Aphis tn Repl Density Reappraisal of Caecillids in the Andes of Venezuela ‘ne E Pera, ROBINSON PEREZ, NANCY SIERRA, AND aancssco Goooy, Ecologia Animal, Departamento de Biologia, Faculte de Cites, Unversity de Los Andes, Mérite, Venezia 5101 During the impoundment ofa recently built dam ‘on the Uibante iver inthe Andean aes ofthe stave ‘of Tachi, westem Venezuela, many specimens of ‘aecilians were captured. This group of amphibians has been considered seace or sarin the county (Gioze and Solan 193). Since 1978, when a contin Sous and consistent herpeologial collecting, Pro- aram Was initiated atte Coleccion de Vertebrcios the Universidsd de Loe andes (CV-ULA), we had found only thee specimens of coeclids. The fost ‘wav collected erwin in roa sie ditch beside the [aSoledad- Altamira de Caceres roa, state of Banas, Jn November 1978. The two other specimens were Cellcted in 1984 in the are of CampementeSibera, ‘Sate of Tchiraone was crawling ona fond, the other ‘oed-illed. All tree were obtained tom sites close {esavines covered by medium tll broad lesved, pli al forests. Many times we purposely dag ditches tr observed crefuy the oxenrsions made by geo” logical or pedological colleagues, looking for eve dence of caslians, but our sesrches were tsa ‘fal Thus, we presumed a real ecaraty of these amphibians (Péfeur and Dine de Pascual, 1982, 1985) oowover, when the Urbane lake began t inane date the plainsadjacentto the Pots! River anefftuent tithe age Andean Utbate River anther conespt Shout the sizeof the popelation of encians there ‘ao gained. Unbante Take i ina deep valley, and ‘wll cover about 2000 ha st the end of is impound ‘ment The dam was closed at the begnning of Apa 1965 and the water rized fom 1010 m to 1026 m sbove ses level during the frst month. At present ‘wetng, top level of 1050 m hasbeen reached, bat probably in May 1986 the highest water level wil each a maximum of 1050 m. The ecological conse {quences will be veried—one of them mill be the