Pseustes sulphureus (Wagler, 1824)

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 : 33

Pseustes sulphureus (Wagler, 1824) “Papa-pinto, Papa-ova”

(Figs. 12.6 and 25.4)

There are two records for this species in the Caatinga in state of Ceará, municipalities of Pacotí and Fortaleza. These areas have 736 m and 21 m of elevation, respectively. It also occurs in Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Strüssmann & Sazima 1993; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Marques et al. 2001; Argôlo 2004; Marques et al. 2005; Marques et al. 2005; Nogueira et al. 2010; Zaher et al. 2011). It inhabits relictual moist forests in highlands (Borges-Nojosa et al. 2006; Loebmann & Haddad, 2010) and probably bushy and arboreal caatinga in semi-arid areas near the coast, along the Atlantic Forest contact. Freitas and Silva (2007) report this species to forested areas (floresta estacional) in Diamantina Plateau , Bahia State, but the vouchers for these records could not be found during our data collection. It has semi-arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates ( Marques et al. 2001).