Dietary Notes on the Variable Coral Snake, Micrurus diastema (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854)

Taylor R. West, Tristan D. Schramer, Yatin Kalki, Daniel B. Wylie

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The variable coral snake (Micrurus diastema) is distributed along the Atlantic versant from central Veracruz, Mexico, through the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, and northern Guatemala to northwestern Honduras (Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Heimes, 2016). It preys primarily on small snakes, but lizards, caecilians and swamp eels have also been reported (Greene, 1973; Blaney and Blaney, 1978; Seib, 1985; Lee, 1996; Roze, 1996; Campbell, 1998; Rodriguez et al., 1998; Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Heimes, 2016; Köhler et al., 2016). We examined the stomach contents of M. diastema specimens from Mexico (n = 23) and Guatemala (n = 1) within the University of Illinois Museum of Natural History Herpetology Collection (UIMNH). Prey items found in the gastrointestinal tracts of three Micrurus diastema diastema specimens are reported herein. Prey remains were compared with conspecific representatives from the UIMNH collection to confirm identifications.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4--8
JournalBulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society
Volume54
Issue number1
StatePublished - 2019

Keywords

  • INHS

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