Apostolepis ammodites Ferrarezzi, Barbo and Albuquerque, 2005

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 ammodites Ferrarezzi, Barbo and Albuquerque, 2005 “Cobra-de-ferrão, cobra-rainha”

(Figs. 13.3 and 26.2)

First record in the Caatinga. Recorded only in the state of Bahia, close to contact areas with the Cerrado region, 440 m elevation. It is widespread in the northeastern portion of the Cerrado, often on grassland areas on sandy soils ( Ferrarezzi et al. 2005) and considered a Cerrado endemic ( Nogueira et al. 2010, 2011). Its occurrence in the Caatinga is probably associated to Cerrado enclaves along the Cerrado-Caatinga contact area in Bahia and Minas Gerais states. It has fossorial and psammophylous habits, is diurnal and nocturnal, and feeds on elongated vertebrates ( Ferrarezzi et al. 2005).