Simoselaps

Abstract: The Australian elapid snake genus Vermicella has traditionally included three taxa: annulata, multifasciata, and snelli. These animals have a history of unstable taxonomy and nomenclature, with rearrangements based mainly on subjective evaluations by different authorities rather than on acquisition of new data. We have quantified characters of external morphology to examine patterns of phenotypic variation in 425 museum specimens of Vermicella. Our aims were to understand better the nature of morphological variation in the genus, and the taxonomic implications of this variation, using univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Based on our results, we recognize each of the three currently described taxa as separate species, and describe two additional species. Vermicella multifasciata is restricted to those specimens from the Darwin area that display exceptionally high numbers of, and very thin, body bands, and is sympatric with a new species described in this paper. Vermicella snelli is restricted to northern Western Australia and a second species from the Alice Springs area of the Northern Territory that displays fewer body bands is described. Males have fewer ventral scales and more subcaudal scales than females in the four species, with sample sizes large enough for meaningful statistical analyses, and V. annulata females have more body and tail bands than conspecific males. In conjunction with the taxonomic study, we also examined reproductive biology and diet of Vermicella. Females reach larger adult body sizes than males in V. annulata, V. intermedia, and probably the other species as well. Gut contents of four species suggest that they feed solely on blind snakes of the genus Ramphotyphlops. Clutch sizes for the smaller species of Vermicella are low, ranging from one to four, while published data for the larger V. annulata shows clutch size to vary from two to 13. Based on published work, it appears that the affinities of Vermicella may lie with Simoselaps in Australia and/or some Melanesian elapids.

Abstract: Snakes have very different ecologies and habits from other non-ophidian squamates (''lizards''); yet ecological data from sympatric populations of lizards are often used as models to explain resource partitioning in sympatric groups of all squamates. Most snake assemblages show greatest ecological divergence in use of dietary resources. We use dietary, spatial, and reproductive data in a clade of five sympatric snake species with similar ecologies to test previous assumptions of how snakes partition resources in a species-rich community. Species show dietary specializations, with species of Simoselaps and Brachyurophis fasciolatus feeding exclusively on lizards and Brachyurophis semifasciatus eating only squamate eggs. Some species show trends regarding differential habitat use; Simoselaps bertholdi and B. semifasciatus are habitat generalists, whereas the other species are not captured in flat areas between sand ridges. Time of peak activity is not partitioned seasonally because all species, except B. fasciolatus, are most active in December. Partitioning of dietary resources is a stronger structuring agent than is partitioning of habitat resources in this community as indicated by the amount of resource overlap. Diet is the most important dimension in explaining ecological divergence among these elapid species, in agreement with prior studies of resource partitioning in snake assemblages.

Abstract: Although small, nocturnal, fossorial snakes are a significant component of the reptile fauna in many parts of the world, their biology is poorly known. An 11-year pit-trapping study in urban bushland remnants near the city of Perth, Western Australia, provided data from >500 captures of small fossorial snakes of the genus Simoselaps. The five species differed in relative abundances and in distribution, both among localities and among habitats within a single locality. For example, three saurophagous taxa (Simoselaps bertholdi, S. bimaculatus, S. calonotos) were most abundant in Banksia woodland, whereas two species that feed on reptile eggs (S. semifasciatus, S. fasciolatus) were most abundant in coastal heath. Capture rates for most species were low (for three of the five species,