Spilotes pullatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

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

Spilotes pullatus (Linnaeus, 1758) “Caninana”

(Figs. 12.8 and 25.4)

Recorded in all states of the Caatinga, except Rio Grande do Norte, probably due to sampling gap. Recorded both in low and high altitudes (up to 1,000 m elevation). Besides its occurrence in Caatinga, it is 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), generally associated to forested habitats ( Marques 1998; Barbo et al. 2011; Zaher et al. 2011; Hamdan & Lira-da-Silva 2012). Inside Caatinga, It inhabits all phytophisiognomies, preferably bushy and arboreal caatinga vegetation and also forested enclaves. It has semi-arboreal habits, is diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates ( Marques et al. 2001, 2005).