Interspecific diurnal refuge sharing in Cuban snakes of the genus Tropidophis (Tropidophiidae)

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REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 29: 252–254 • 2022
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With 17 species, all endemic, the Cuban Archipelago has
the richest diversity of snakes in the genus Tropidophis
(Tropidophiidae) (Hedges 2002; Díaz and Cádiz 2020; Uetz
et al. 2021). This diversity is reflected in the co-occurrence
of several species, probably the result of the evolution of
traits that allowed the ecological segregation of three dis-
tinct ecomorphotypes (terrestrial, semi-arboreal, and gener-
alist) (Rodríguez-Cabrera et al. 2016; 2020; 2021a; 2021b;
Rodríguez-Cabrera and Blanco Morciego 2021). Jamaica
is the only West Indian island other than Cuba with more
than one species of Tropidophis (three), but they have allo-
patric distributions and phenotypic divergence is minimal
(Schwartz and Henderson 1991; Hedges 2002; Powell and
Henderson 2012). However, despite the apparent niche parti-
tioning among sympatric species of Tropidophis in Cuba, spe-
cies belonging to seemingly different ecomorphotypes have
Interspecific Diurnal Refuge Sharing in
Cuban Snakes of the Genus Tropidophis
(Tropidophiidae)
Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera1, Ernesto Morell Savall2, L. Yusnaviel García-Padrón3, and Javier Torres4
1Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, La Habana 11900, Cuba, and Sociedad Cubana de Zoología, Cuba (tomasmichel.rodriguez@gmail.com [corresponding author])
2Reparto Virginia, Santa Clara, Villa Clara 50100, Cuba (ernestomorell68@nauta.cu)
3Museo de Historia Natural “Tranquilino Sandalio de Noda,” Martí 202, Pinar del Río, Cuba (yusnaviel@gmail.com)
4Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA (javiertorres@ku.edu)
HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANS
Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961
https://doi.org/10.17161/randa.v29i1.16644
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Fig. 1. A Spotted Brown Trope (Tropidophis pardalis) (above) and a
Giant Trope, T. melanurus) (below) found under the same rock at Loma
de la Marota, west of Santa Clara City, Santa Clara Municipality, Villa
Clara Province, Cuba. Note the presence of the adult male Red Scorpion
(Heteroctenus junceus) in the same refuge. Photograph © E. Morell Savall.
Fig. 2. A Giant Trope (Tropidophis melanurus) (on top) and a Yellow-
banded Trope (T. semicinctus) (beneath) found under the same rock north
of the Palmarito Dam, Ranchuelo Municipality, Villa Clara Province,
Cuba. Photograph © E. Morell Savall.

RODRÍGUEZ-CABRERA ET AL. REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 29: 252–254 • 2022
253
been reported sharing diurnal refuges (Torres and Rodríguez-
Cabrera 2020). Herein we report three new instances of diur-
nal refuge sharing by different species of Tropidophis in west-
ern and central Cuba.
At 0940 h on 4 February 2016, we found a Spotted
Brown Trope, T. pardalis (150 mm SVL, 20 mm tail length),
and a Spotted Red Trope, T. maculatus (250 mm SVL, 30
mm tail length) under the same rock (500 x 300 mm) about
2 km N of El Pitirre Village, San Cristóbal Municipality,
Artemisa Province (22.69224, -83.25390; elev. 300 m asl;
WGS 84). When first encountered, the snakes were coiled,
inactive, and in close proximity to each other. The vegetation
in the area is a mostly secondary mosaic of grasslands, shrubs,
groves, and patches of subsistence agriculture, mainly coffee
plantations.
At 1150 h on 3 February 2022, we found a Spotted
Brown Trope (ca. 200 mm SVL) and a Giant Trope, T. mel-
anurus (ca. 400 mm SVL), under the same rock at Loma de
la Marota, about 8 km W of Santa Clara City, Santa Clara
Municipality, Villa Clara Province (22.41340, -80.06866;
elev. 100 m asl). When initially encountered, the snakes were
coiled, inactive, in close proximity to each other, and sharing
the refuge with an adult male Red Scorpion, Heteroctenus jun-
ceus (Buthidae) (Fig. 1). The predominant vegetation in the
area is secondary grassland with isolated invasive thorny shrubs
(Vachellia farnesiana and Dichrostachys cinerea, Mimosaceae)
on karstic soil with abundant limestone rock outcrops.
At 1245 h on 12 February 2022, we found a Yellow-
banded Trope, T. semicinctus (ca. 250 mm SVL), and a Giant
Trope (ca. 350 mm SVL) under the same rock about 400
m N of the Palmarito Dam, Ranchuelo Municipality, Villa
Clara Province (22.36399, -80.03799; elev. 115 m asl).
When first encountered, the snakes were coiled, inactive, in
full contact with each other (Fig. 2), and also sharing the ref-
uge with a Red Scorpion that fled as soon as we lifted the
rock. The predominant vegetation in the area is secondary
grassland on serpentine-derived soil.
The three cases described here bring the total number to
six observations of diurnal refuge sharing involving six spe-
cies of Tropidophis: the generalist Giant Trope, the terrestrial
Spotted Brown Trope and Escambray White-necked Trope
(T. galacelidus), and the semi-arboreal Spotted Red Trope,
Yellow-banded Trope, and Sancti Spiritus Trope (T. spiritus)
(see also Torres and Rodríguez-Cabrera 2020) (Fig. 3). Snakes
of the genus Tropidophis are mostly nocturnal (see Henderson
and Powell 2009 for a review). Ecological segregation among
sympatric Cuban species, at least within the structural niche,
apparently occurs only when snakes are active, suggesting that
diurnal refuges are not a limited resource in those ecosystems
where cohabitation was observed.
Only generalist or terrestrial ecomorphotypes occur on
islands inhabited by Tropidophis except Cuba (for reviews
on morphology see Schwartz and Henderson 1991; Hedges
2002). The more specialized semi-arboreal ecomorphotype
apparently evolved more than once (Díaz and Cádiz 2020)
and is present only where multispecies assemblages occur in
Cuba (Rodríguez-Cabrera et al. 2016; 2020; 2021a; 2021b;
Rodríguez-Cabrera and Blanco Morciego 2021). These
semi-arboreal species do not show the high degree of spe-
cialization observed in other strictly arboreal snakes from
other families (for reviews see Hedges and Garrido 1992;
Lillywhite and Henderson 1993; Hedges 2002; Pizzatto et al.
2007; Rodríguez-Cabrera et al. 2016; Díaz and Cádiz 2020;
Landestoy et al. 2021). In addition to lacking the extreme
morphological specialization of other arboreal forms, semi-
arboreal tropes hide on or near the ground when inactive and
their response to being disturbed while foraging in elevated
vegetation is to drop to the ground instead of climbing higher
(T.M. Rodríguez-Cabrera, pers. obs.). Because these semi-
arboreal tropes seem to seek shelter on the ground instead of
in the vegetation where they actively forage at night, the coin-
cidence of different species of Tropidophis in the same diurnal
refuges might be more frequent and widespread in Cuba than
previously thought.
Acknowledgements
We thank Yosvani Vicet González and Jose M. de la Cruz
Mora for assistance in the field, and Raimundo López-Silvero
for his photographs.
Fig. 3. Species of Cuban tropes (Tropidophis spp.) known to share diurnal
refuges. Ecomorphotypes: Semi-arboreal (A), terrestrial (T), and general-
ist (G). Photographs © Raimundo López-Silvero (T. maculatus, T. semi-
cinctus, and T. spiritus) and T.M. Rodríguez-Cabrera (T. galacelidus, T.
melanurus, and T. pardalis).

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