Oxybelis aeneus (Wagler, 1824)

Guedes, Thaís B., Nogueira, Cristiano & Marques, Otavio A. V., 2014, Diversity, natural history, and geographic distribution of snakes in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 3863 (1), pp. 1-93 : 32

Oxybelis aeneus (Wagler, 1824) “Cipó-bicuda”

(Figs. 12.5 and 25.3)

Distributed in all regions of the Caatinga and was recorded in high and low altitudes (between 0 and 1,100 m elevation). It is also widely distributed in Atlantic Forest, Amazon Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Strüssmann & Sazima 1993; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Marques et al. 2001; Argôlo 2004; Marques et al. 2005; Marques et al. 2005; Sawaya et al. 2008; Nogueira et al. 2010; Zaher et al. 2011). This species was abundant on grasslands on sandy soils in the Cerrado ( Recoder et al. 2011, CN pers. obs.), but inside Caatinga it is widespread, abundant, and inhabits all kinds of vegetation types described for Caatinga, from areas with arboreal Caatinga to bushy and open, herbaceous areas (TBG pers. obs.). The species has arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates ( Marques et al. 2005).