Apostolepis assimilis (Reinhardt, 1861)

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 : 35

Apostolepis assimilis (Reinhardt, 1861) “Cobra-de-ferrão, cobra-rainha”

(Figs. 13.5 and 26.2)

Recorded only in the states of Bahia and Minas Gerais. It was recorded in areas next to the Cerrado contact but was also reported in lowland semi-arid caatinga by Lema (2002b), maximum 254 to 440 m elevation. It is known from Atlantic Forest and Cerrado ( Ferrarezzi et al. 2005, Nogueira et al. 2010). In Caatinga, it inhabits bushy and herbaceous caatinga on sandy soils or cerrado enclaves. It has fossorial habits, is diurnal and nocturnal, and feeds on elongated vertebrates ( Ferrarezzi et al. 2005).