This paper describes the first record of male–male combat in free-ranging Amazonian Common Lanceheads (Bothrops atrox) and discusses the implications of this observation for the species mating system. During fieldwork, we found one immature female and five active adult males, two of them fighting. These observations suggest that reproductive male B. atrox actively search and compete for …
We tested whether pregnancy influences body temperature in the South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus). We found that pregnant rattlesnakes averaged higher body temperatures than nonpregnant ones. We also found that female rattlesnakes showed higher body temperatures in summer than in other seasons; however, reproductive status did not influence body temperature variance. Our results agree with …
Do mother rattlesnakes change their body temperature? Read More »
This paper describes reproductive anatomy, female reproductive cycle, potential clutch size, seasonal activity, and sexual dimorphism of a population of the Amaral’s blind snake in southeastern Brazil. Females grow larger than males. Male testes are spermiogenic in early spring, when the sexual segment of the kidney is hypertrophied, and the ductus deferentia are packed with …
Females of many squamates maintain viable sperm in their reproductive tract after insemination. This ‘female sperm storage’ (FSS), has several advantages and clear implications for squamate evolution by dramatically influencing life histories, mating systems, and sexual selection and conflict. In this chapter, we summarize the literature on the anatomy of FSS and reconstruct the evolution …
Bothrops jararacussu shares several reproductive traits with its congeners (e.g., obligatory female sperm storage). However, we found that this species exhibits some unique characteristics, such as one of the highest female-biased sexual size dimorphism in snakes and one of the largest litter size in the genus, which we interpret as the result of a strong selection …
