Fig 3 - uploaded by Javier Torres López
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A freshly caught adult female Giant Trope (Tropidophis melanurus) (Table 1, No. 5; CZACC13401) from La Caoba, Santa Clara Municipality, Villa Clara Province, Cuba, with two large ticks attached to a scar on the back (left), and being held by TMRC prior to shedding (notice the opaque coloration) in June 2013 (right). Photographs © T.M. Rodríguez-Cabrera (left) and Raimundo López-Silvero (right).
Source publication
The Giant Trope (Tropidophis melanurus) is by far the largest and stoutest species in the family, it can reach almost double the size of most other relatively large congeners. Individuals around one meter SVL have been reported. Herein we report several very large individuals of both sexes, including new size records.
Context in source publication
Context 1
... 23 June 2012, we found an adult female (Table 1, No. 5; CZACC 13401) at La Caoba, Santa Clara Municipality, Villa Clara Province (22.383062, -79.834685; elev. 100 m asl). Two large unidentified ticks were attached to a transverse scar on the back (Fig. 3). In captivity it started to refuse food in early 2014 and died of unknown causes on 21 May 2014 (ca. 2 years after collection). Measurements soon after death were 1,060 mm total length, 970 mm SVL, 100 mm midbody circumference, 32 mm head length, and 687 g. This specimen slightly exceeded (13 mm) the previous SVL record for females ...
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Citations
... With 17 species, all endemic, Cuba is the center of diversification of this genus (Torres López et al. 2017;Uetz et al. 2024;Zaher et al. 2024), resulting in assemblages of at least three species at any given area ). This co-occurrence is probably due to the evolution of traits leading to niche partitioning resulting in three different ecomorphotypes -terrestrial, semi-arboreal, and generalist , 2021a, 2021bRodríguez-Cabrera and Blanco Morciego 2021). Despite this ecological segregation, all ecomorphotypes seem to use the same types of diurnal refuges when the animals are inactive . ...
We herein present new observations of refuge sharing
in Cuban snakes, reporting the first instance of this behavior
between the Giant Trope (Tropidophis melanurus) and Cuban
Racer (Cubophis cantherigerus) and the first case of refuge
sharing between three species of Tropidophis.
