Predation of a common scaly-foot 'Pygopus lepidopodus' by an eastern small-eyed snake 'Cryptophis nigrescens' in New South Wales

2014·0.49 MB·English

NaturalistNotes
Predation ofa Common Scaly-foot Pygopus lepidopodus byan
Eastern Small-eyed Snake Cryptophis nigrescens in New South Wales
The Eastern Small-eyed Snake Cryptophis ni- On 21 May2014at0940hours, amaleEastern
grescensisasmallnocturnalelapidfoundalong Small-eyed Snake (snout vent length (SVL) =
the east coast of Australia from Melbourne in 511 mm; mass67g)wascapturedbetweentwo
Victoria to Cooktown in Queensland (Cogger sheets ofcorrugated galvanised steel that had
2014). Duringthecoolermonthsoftheyear,the beenplacedwithin thepark forthepurposeof
species frequently shelters beneath exfoliated monitoring reptiles (see Michael etal. 2012 for
rocks (Webb et al 2004) and is often found in methodology on using artificial refuges). The
smallaggregations (Scott etal. 2013).TheEast- snakewasplacedintoacalicohandlingbagand
ern Small-eyed Snake actively forages for food heldovernightaspartofalife-historystudyon
(Webb etal. 2003) and is thoughttopreyprin- thespecies(AustralianNational UniversityAn-
cipallyon small scincid lizards, althoughithas imal Care and Ethic Approval No: A2014/02).
beenreportedconsumingavarietyofotherrep- On 22 May at 0830 hours, the handling bag
tile preyin low numbers (Shine 1984). Forex- was opened and on inspection an adult Com-
ample, Shine (1984) examinedthegutcontents mon Scaly-foot (totallength = 315 mm; SVL =
ofEastern Small-eyed Snakes from Australian 162 mm; mass 21 g) was found to have been
Museum,QueenslandMuseum,NationalMuse- regurgitatedbythesnake(Fig. 1).Thenapehad
umofVictoriaandAustralian NationalWildlife obvious signs ofnecrosis and bite marks were
CollectionandfoundsnakesfromNSWinclud- evidentalongtheentirelengthofthelizard.
ed prey items such as the Copper-tailed Skink The Common Scaly-foot is a diurnal species
Ctenotus taeniolatus Delicate Skink Lamproph- that actively forages for arthropods (Patch-
,
olisdelicata,GardenSkinkL.guichenoti,Weasel ell and Shine 1984; Wall et al 2013), and was
Skink Saproscincus mustelinus, Eulamprus sp. presumably captured by the snake during the
and a single Mustard-bellied Snake Drysdalia previous night while the lizard was inactive
rhodogaster. A similardietarycompositionwas (maximum and minimum temperature for 20
reportedforVictorian specimens (Shine 1984). May was 22.4°C and 16.5°C respectively). The
Queensland specimens, however, contained a habitat inwhichthe snake was captured is de-
muchbroaderrangeofscindidlizards,aswellas scribed as an ecotone between dry heathland
aBurton’s Snake-lizardLialisburtonis,Rampho- dominatedbyHeath BanksiaBanksiaericifolia,
typhlopssp.andseveraladditionalsmallelapids Scrub She-oak Allocasuarina distyla, Broad-
(Shine 1984).Presumablythedietarybreadthof leaved DrumsticksIsopogon anemonifolius and
Queensland snakes is due to the greater diver- DaggerHakeablakea teretifolia, and dryforest
sityofspeciesavailable. dominated by Turpentine Syncarpia glomulif-
Here we report an instance ofpredation by era. Thisobservationrepresentsthefirstrecord
theEasternSmall-eyedSnake ontheCommon ofan Eastern Small-eyed Snake preying on a
Scaly-foot Pygopus lepidopodus (Pygopodidae) legless lizardin NSW and suggeststhis species
fromBoodereeNational Park(JervisBayTerri- mayhaveamuch broaderdiet than previously
tory).BoodereeNationalParkislocated200km thought,possiblyincludingrelativelylargeprey
south ofSydneyand20 kmsouth ofthecityof items.
Nowraonthesouth coastofNewSouthWales,
Acknowledgements
sisou3t5h°-1e0a’sSt,er1n50A°us4t0r’alEi)a. (Tahpepraorexaimhaatseamitdepmopiern-t TEhnivsirsotnudmyenits saunpdporthteedWbryectkheBDaeypaArbtomreignitnaolf
a1t1e5m0armimtimpeerclaimnantuemwistphraenadavreerlaatgieverlayinefavlelnloyf Community.
overtheyear.
186 TheVictorianNaturalist
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Vol 131 (5) 2014 187