Leptophis ahaetulla (Linnaeus, 1758)

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 : 32

Leptophis ahaetulla (Linnaeus, 1758) “Cobra-de-jericoá, Cipó-verde”

(Figs. 12.2 and 25.1)

Recorded in all portions of the Caatinga, except in Rio Grande do Norte State and the sandy dunes of São Francisco River, probably due to sampling gaps. It is recorded mostly on lowlands (up to 500 m elevation), but there are a few records in isolated highlands of the Ibiapaba-Araripe Plateau (900 m elevation) and Diamantina Plateau (at least 740 m elevation). It is also recorded in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal regions ( Marques et al. 2001, 2005; Nogueira et al. 2010). In Caatinga this snake occurs in all phytophisiognomies, but mostly in bushy and arboreal caatinga vegetation. It has arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates ( Marques et al. 2001, 2005).