Predation by Loxocemus bicolor on the eggs of Ctenosaura similis and Iguana iguana
Journal of Herpetology
1987
Journal Article
21
4
334-335
Iguana iguana;Ctenosaura similis
Loxocemus bicolor is a primitive snake of uncertain phylogenetic relationships (Greene and Burghardt, 1978). Recently it was considered to belong to the Loxocemidae (McDowell, 1975), Boidae (Willard,1977), Xenopeltinae (Dowling and Duellman, 1978), and Pythonidae (Alvarez del Toro, 1982). Moreover, little is known of its natural history. Loxocemus bicolor is primarily fossorial (Alvarez del Toro, 1982) and all I have observed were seen at night. Moraand Robinson (1984) reported predation by L. bicolor on the eggs of the olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), and Greene (1983) found two teiid lizards and two rodents in the stomachs of museum specimens. Here I report that the eggs of large iguanid lizards may be seasonally important in its diet, based on observations made at Rafael Lucas Rodriguez Caballero Wildlife Refuge, Palo Verde, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica.