Apostolepis cearensis Gomes, 1915

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 cearensis Gomes, 1915 “Cobra-de-ferrão, cobra-rainha”

(Figs. 13.6 and 26.2)

Caatinga endemic species. It has a wide range in the Caatinga, including the states of Piauí, Ceará, Paraíba, Alagoas, and Bahia. Most records are in lowlands, covered with semi-arid Caatinga, with a few isolated records in higher areas. Not recorded in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco, perhaps as a result of sampling gaps. It inhabits herbaceous, bushy and arboreal caatinga, and moist forest with sandy soils. It is the most common species of the genus in the Caatinga. It has fossorial and psammophylous habits, is diurnal and nocturnal, and feeds on elongated vertebrates ( Ferrarezzi et al. 2005).