Crotalus cerberus

Crotalus cerberus is a venomous pit viper species[3][4] found in the southwestern United States. It is known as the Arizona black rattlesnake, black rattlesnake, and several other common names.[5]

Crotalus cerberus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Genus: Crotalus
Species:
C. cerberus
Binomial name
Crotalus cerberus
(Coues In Wheeler, 1875)
Synonyms
  • Caudisona lucifer var. cerberus Coues In Wheeler, 1875
  • [Crotalus oreganus] Var. cerberus – Garman, 1884
  • Crotalus viridis cerberus
    – Klauber, 1949[1]
  • Crotalus oreganus cerberus
    – Ashton & de Queiroz, 2001[2]
  • Crotalus cerberus – Hoser, 2009[3]

Description

According to Wright and Wright (1957), adults grow to an average length of 78–109 cm (31–43 in). Klauber (1997) reports the maximum length to be less at 1,032 mm (40+5⁄8 in), with the smallest gravid female measuring 701 mm (27+5⁄8 in).[6] Hubbs and O'Connor (2012) list an adult size range of 812–1,219 mm (32.0–48.0 in).[7]

The color pattern consists of a dark grayish, brownish black, reddish brown, or blackish ground color, overlaid with a dorsal pattern of blotches that are rectangular anteriorly, becoming subhexagonal posteriorly, eventually becoming crossbands just before the tail. However, specimens also may be a uniform dark color without any clear dorsal pattern, or the dorsal blotches may be even darker and bordered with white, cream, or yellow transverse rows of scales, or the color pattern may be quite pale with a significant amount of yellow mixed in. A postocular stripe is evident in lightly colored specimens, but not so much in darker ones.[8]

Color change

Arizona black rattlesnakes undergo morphological color change (gradual change due to changes in number or quality of chromatophores); adults are less patterned than juveniles (also called ontogenetic color change).[9] Some adults can change color relatively quickly (physiological color change: rapid change due to movement of organelles within chromatophores),[9] an ability shared not only with chameleons and other lizards but also with other snakes such as some species in the genus Tropidophis. The mechanism for their physiological color change is likely the same as that documented in the closely related prairie rattlesnake (melanin movement within their dermal melanophores),[10] but further research is needed to determine the stimuli for this phenomenon in this rattlesnake.[7]

Common names

Arizona black rattlesnake, black rattlesnake, black diamond rattlesnake, brown rattlesnake, Cerberus rattlesnake, mountain diamond-back.[5] Also often incorrectly referred to as a timber rattlesnake.

Geographic range

Found in the United States, in Arizona from the Hualapai Mountains and Cottonwood Cliffs in the northwest of the state, southeast to the Santa Catalina, Rincon, Pinaleno and Blue Mountains. Also found at Steeple Rock, in extreme western New Mexico.[6] The type locality given is "San Francisco Mountains" (Coconino County, Arizona, USA).[1]

Diet

It preys upon suitably sized amphibians, reptiles, birds and their eggs, and mammals.[7]

Reproduction

Sexually mature females bear live young in broods of 4 to 21 neonates.[7] The Arizona black rattlesnake is the first species of snake observed to exhibit complex social behavior,[11] and like all temperate pit vipers, care for their babies. Females remain with their young in nests for 7 to 14 days, and mothers have been observed cooperatively parenting their broods.[12]

References
  1. McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
  2. Ashton, KG; de Queiroz, A (2001). "Molecular systematics of the western rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis (Viperidae), with comments on the utility of the d-loop in phylogenetic studies of snakes" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 21 (2): 176–189. doi:10.1006/mpev.2001.1013. PMID 11697914. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
  3. Crotalus cerberus at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 16 June 2020.
  4. "Crotalus cerberus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
  5. Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. ISBN 0-8014-0463-0.
  6. Klauber LM. 1997. Rattlesnakes: Their Habitats, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind. Second Edition. 2 volumes. Reprint, University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-21056-5.
  7. Hubbs, Brian and Brendan O'Connor. 2012. A Guide to the Rattlesnakes and other Venomous Serpents of the United States. Tricolor Books. Tempe, Arizona, 129 pp. ISBN 978-0-9754641-3-7. (Crotalus cerberus, pp. 34-35.)
  8. Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. ISBN 0-8014-4141-2.
  9. Amarello, Melissa; Smith, Jeffrey J. (2009). A snake of a different color: physiological color change in Arizona black rattlesnakes (poster).
  10. Rahn, Hermann (1941). "The pituitary regulation of melanophores in the rattlesnake". The Biological Bulletin. 80 (2): 228–237. doi:10.2307/1537600. JSTOR 1537600.
  11. Amarello, Melissa (2012). Social Snakes? Non-random association patterns detected in a population of Arizona black rattlesnakes (PDF) (Unpublished Masters Thesis). Arizona State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  12. Amarello, Melissa; Smith, Jeffrey; Slone, John (2011). "Family values: Maternal care in rattlesnakes is more than mere attendance". Nature Precedings. doi:10.1038/npre.2011.6671.1.
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