J. M. Ray

University of Nevada, Reno | UNR · Department of Biology

A new species of Dipsas Laurenti, 1768, from Central Panama is described based on molecular analyses, hemipenial morphology, and external characters. This is the sixth species of Dipsas to be described for the country; the snake has been suspected to exist since 1977 and has not been thoroughly studied until now. Additionally, morphological compara...

Natural history collections are essential to a wide variety of studies in biology because they maintain large collections of specimens and associated data, including genetic material (e.g., tissues) for DNA sequence data, yet they are currently under-funded and collection staff have high workloads. With the advent of aggregate databases and advance...

Ecological and morphological data on Ungaliophis panamensis is extremely limited as this species is rarely encountered. These knowledge gaps have been advanced in this study where data was analysed from a small sample of snakes collected in two tropical forested environments in Costa Rica and Panama. Standardised major axis testing and a Bayesian l...

Herein we report a new locality for P. neuwiedii near the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

Herein we report a new locality for P. neuwiedii near thesouthern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. On 25 December 2020,a red medium-sized snake (ca. 1.2 m) was found dead on theroad in an African Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantation nearLa Palma, La Cuesta District, Municipality of Corredores,Puntarenas Province (8.5199°N, 82.9014°W; WGS 84; 40m asl...

The genus Oxybelis currently is composed of four taxa despite numerous studies suggesting and describing multiple taxa within the O. aeneus complex. Here, we utilize a multilocus molecular dataset (i.e., cyt b, ND4, 12S, 16S, cmos, PRLR, 3663 bp) to conduct phylogenetic analyses to assess the evolutionary history of Oxybelis. Our molecular analyses...

Cascading impacts of prey loss The global pandemic caused by the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has decimated frog populations around the world. This decline has been called out as a potential catastrophe for amphibian species. What has been less explored are the impacts of amphibian declines on other members of their ecol...

Resistance is not futile The fungal disease chytridiomycosis has wreaked havoc on amphibians worldwide. The disease is caused by the organism Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and was first identified in the late 1990s. Voyles et al. revisited protected areas in Panama where catastrophic amphibian losses were recorded a decade ago (see the Perspective...

The genus-level taxonomy of the New World racers and whipsnakes (Coluber and Masticophis) has long been contentious regarding whether the two genera are mutually exclusive clades. This argument is based on morphological characters and largely single-locus analyses. Herein we examine the phylogenetic history of this group using multi-locus data in a...

The goal of this study was to document the natural history of salamanders in central Panama and assess their response to drought conditions, which are predicted to become more common as a result of climate change. We conducted 123 transect surveys at night along a concrete trail in a natural area protected by the Panamanian national environmental a...

The coralsnake Micrurus dumerilii has been reported for Panama on the basis of two specimens, and suggested on the basis of another. We confirm the identity of two of these specimens, reallocate another to M. nigrocinctus and correct its locality, and report a new specimen of M. dumerilii from central Panama that represents a significant range exte...

The fossorial snake Geophis bellus is a small Panamanian endemic previously known only from the holotype. Here we report additional specimens, which greatly expand the known range of the species ca. 200 km from the type locality into western Panama. Furthermore, we provide information on sexual dimorphism in some scalation counts and in body and ta...

Political borders usually do not correspond with natural habitats, and thus organisms pass freely across them to utilize their appropriate environment. The redistribution or formation of new political borders, however, can impact the management of protected natural areas and the species that occur there. In 2014 a new province was formed in the Rep...

We document the first records of the small colubrid snake Trimetopon barbouri Dunn, 1930, from Coclé Province, Republic of Panama. Comparisons with the type description are presented for one specimen.

Morphology and ecology of Sibon snakes (Squamata: Dipsadidae) from two forests in Central America. Physical measurements, abundance, and ecological observations were recorded for Sibon annulatus, S. argus, S. longifrenis, and S. nebulatus at two Neotropical habitats: a lowland swamp forest in Costa Rica and a montane cloud forest in Panama. Fourty-...

Morphology and ecology of Sibon snakes (Squamata: Dipsadidae) from two forests in Central America. Physical measurements, abundance, and ecological observations were recorded for Sibon annulatus, S. argus, S. longifrenis, and S. nebulatus at two Neotropical habitats: a lowland swamp forest in Costa Rica and a montane cloud forest in Panama. Fourty-...

A single specimen of Tantilla alticola was collected from Parque Nacional G. D. Omar Torrijos Herrera of Coclé Province, Republic of Panama. This record fills in a gap in the distribution for this species within the cloud forests of Central America.

We describe the diet composition of six species of dipsadines (Sibon longifrenis, S. argus, S. annulatus, S. nebulatus, Dipsas nicholsi, Dipsas sp.) from two montane forest sites in central Panama. Between 2005 and 2007 we captured 473 individual snakes, of which 305 contained no prey and two contained gut contents. Of the 166 fecal samples collect...

Arboreal snakes have evolved for a life in the aboveground vegetation where they are faced with the challenge of movement through an unstable substratum. Many species have ridged bodies that allow them to bridge gaps in the forest, saving them from descending to the ground and back up another plant. I tested the cantilevering ability of five specie...

In Omar Torrijos National Park, Coclé Province, Panama, we visually located Cope's vine snakes Oxybelis brevirostris at night along trails and streams. Of 203 O. brevirostris located, we documented height of perch for 185 individuals during March 2005—March 2007. All sleeping snakes encountered were on vegetation rather than on the ground. There wa...

Invasive species often have rapid and far-reaching negative impacts on populations and ecological communities. These effects are most common when invasive species have few competitors or predators. Although higher level carnivores do consume invasive species, quantitative effects of new and abundant food sources on predators have rarely been docume...

Populações insulares da cobra-d'água do Lago Eire (Nerodia sipedon insularum) passaram por uma mudança ambiental dramática na forma de uma nova espécie de presa abundante, o gobiídeo redondo (Neogobius melanostomus). Os efeitos dessa mudança biótica nas características reprodutivas das cobrasd'água foram testadas pela comparação do tamanho da ninha...

Question: What is the temporal and spatial scale of microevolution? Hypotheses: The combined effects of natural selection and gene flow result in variation in heritable traits on fine spatial and geographic scales. Organism: The Lake Erie watersnake, Nerodia sipedon insularum. Field site: US and Canadian islands in western Lake Erie. Methods: We te...

Erosion netting consists of woven mats of seed-implanted straw or jute layered between two sheets of netting, or occasionally with a single layer of erosion netting over a layer of straw (Munshower 1994). This netting comes in various sizes, but the most commonly used size is 20 x 20 mm. Some netting comes in several varieties such as Bird-X Protec...