Tantilla marcovani Lema, 2004

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 : 33

Tantilla marcovani Lema, 2004

(Figs. 13.1 and 26.1)

Caatinga endemic species. Known only one from the type-locality on Paraíba State, Pico do Jabre, municipality of Maturéia ( Lema 2004; Filho et al. 2011), 1,090 m elevation. The type locality is a moist forest relict locally called mata serrana, or upland forest ( Lema 2004). Thus, It shows a restricted distribution in an isolated forested area. There is a report of Tantilla cf. marcovani to Diamantina Plateau , municipality of Mucugê ( Freitas & Silva 2007), but the determination of this species is problematic and we thus opted to restrict the name T. marcovani only to specimens collected in Pico do Jabre. As all Neotropical Tantilla species, this species has terrestrial habits, is diurnal and nocturnal, and feeds on chilopods ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Argôlo 2004).