Sexual dimorphism in the South American water snake Helicops polylepis (Serpentes: Dipsadidae)

Authors

  • Isla Carol Marialva Camargo Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologia das Águas
  • Jackeline Cristina Palma Veras Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Ciências da Educação
  • Síria Ribeiro Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Engenharia e Biociências
  • Ricardo A. Kawashita-Ribeiro Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologia das Águas
  • Rafael de Fraga Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Ciências da Educação
  • Alfredo P. Santos Junior Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologia das Águas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9079.v20i1p15-25

Keywords:

Fecundity, Hydropsini, Sexual selection, Squamata

Abstract

Sexual selection, fecundity selection and ecological divergence have been the main explanations proposed for the origin and maintenance of sexual dimorphism. In this study we provide evidence of sexual dimorphism in the South American aquatic snake Helicops polylepis, which is mainly determined by body and head sizes. Males have longer tails and more subcaudal scales, and females have larger body and head and more ventral scales. The sexual dimorphism observed in different morphological characters of H. polylepis occurs in other species of xenodontine snakes and is interpreted as a consequence of sexual selection pressures. Data on growth rates associated with prey availability and female size-related offspring size are necessary to refine our analyzes and test specific hypotheses about the ecological and evolutionary bases of sexual dimorphism in H. polylepis.

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Published

2021-06-30

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 ESALQ-USP

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

All material originally published in Phyllomedusa belongs to Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz - Universidade de São Paulo. All contents are under a license of Creative Commons BY-NC-ND.

How to Cite

Camargo, I. C. M., Veras, J. C. P., Ribeiro, S., Kawashita-Ribeiro, R. A., Fraga, R. de, & Santos Junior, A. P. (2021). Sexual dimorphism in the South American water snake Helicops polylepis (Serpentes: Dipsadidae). Phyllomedusa: Journal of Herpetology, 20(1), 15-25. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9079.v20i1p15-25

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