Officers and Editors for 2013-2014 President

ROBERT D. ALDRIDGE Department of Biology Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63103, USA

President-Elect AARON BAUER Department of Biology Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085, USA

Secretary MARION PREEST Joint Science Department The Claremont Colleges Claremont, CA 91711, USA

Treasurer ANN PATERSON Department of Natural Science Williams Baptist College Walnut Ridge, AR 72476, USA

Publications Secretary BRECK BARTHOLOMEW P.O. Box 58517 Salt Lake City, UT 84158, USA

Immediate Past-President JOSEPH R. MENDELSON III Zoo Atlanta Atlanta, GA 30315, USA

Directors (Class and Category) FRANK BURBRINK (2016 R) College of Staten Island, USA ALISON CREE (2016 Non-US) University of Otago, NEW ZEALAND TIFFANY DOAN (2014 R) Central Connecticut State Univ., USA LISA HAZARD (2016 R) Montclair State University, USA TRAVIS LADUC (2014 Mem. at-Large) University of Texas, USA JENNIFER PRAMUK (2014 Cons) Woodland Park Zoo, USA CAROL SPENCER (2014 R) University of California, Berkeley, USA GREGORY WATKINS-COLWELL

(2016 R) Yale Peabody Mus. of Nat. Hist., USA

Trustee GEORGE PISANI University of Kansas, USA

Journal of Herpetology ERIN MUTHS, Co-Editor U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA GAD PERRY, Co-Editor Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX 79409, USA

Herpetological Review ROBERT W. HANSEN, Editor 16333 Deer Path Lane Clovis, CA 93619, USA

Contributions to Herpetology KRAIG ADLER, Editor Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-2702, USA

Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology AARON BAUER, Editor Villanova University Villanova, PA 19085, USA

Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles

CHRISTOPHER BELL, Co-Editor University of Texas, Austin Austin, TX 78712, USA TRAVIS LADUC, Co-Editor University of Texas, Austin Austin, TX 78758, USA

Herpetological Circulars JOHN J. MORIARTY, Editor Three Rivers Park District  Plymouth, MN 55441, USA

Herpetological Conservation JOSEPH C. MITCHELL, Editor Mitchell Ecol. Res. Service P.O. Box 5638 Gainesville, FL 32627-5638, USA

Publisher of Journal of Herpetology, Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology, Herpetological Review, Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles, Herpetological Circulars, Contributions to Herpetology, and Herpetological Conservation

 

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Herpetological Review 44(4), 2013

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 695

the second black, with sharply defined edges. The inner rings are red with a yellow center but, with indistinct edges bleed into one another. The venter is nearly uniform red with minute black specks, occurring on a few scales, and some yellow from the dor-sal blotches entering onto the extreme lateral edges of some ven-trals. The subcaudals are predominantly orange, with a “wash” of red appearing at the medium seams of the divided subcaudals. We thank Houston Zoo, Inc. for consent to report on this unusual specimen.

WILLIAM L. FARR, 11019 Wainfleet Lane, Houston, Texas 77096, USA (e-mail: williamfarr@sbcglobal.net); THAD WARREN, 67 Chandler Road, Huntsville, Texas 77320, USA (e-mail: tosk47@hotmail.com).

NERODIA FLORIDANA (Florida Green Watersnake). DIET. Nerodia floridana, North America’s largest watersnake, occupies most of Florida, small parts of southern Alabama and Georgia, and a portion of southern South Carolina. Fish and adult frogs have been reported to comprise the bulk of its diet; however, it has also been known to consume salamanders, tadpoles, small turtles, and invertebrates (Ashton and Ashton 1981. Handbook of Reptiles and Amphibians of Florida. Part 1. The Snakes. Wind-ward Publ., Miami, Florida. 176 pp.). Here we report several new diet records for N. floridana.

In the course of long-term monitoring of aquatic snake pop-ulations on the U.S Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken and Barnwell counties, South Carolina, USA, we documented the following diet items from individual N. flori-dana captured in plastic minnow traps: 6 June 2006 (33.286533°N, 81.488019°W, datum WGS84), Erimyzon sucetta (Lake Chub-sucker); 1 July 2006 (33.255185°N, 81.585210°W), Lepomis gu-losus (Warmouth) and Lithobates sphenocephalus (Southern Leopard Frog); 29 March 2007 (33.161047°N, 81.692606°W), two larval Ambystoma opacum (Marbled Salamander); 25 June 2008 (33.161047°N, 81.692606°W), two Acantharchus pomotis (Mud Sunfish; total length = 48 and 75 mm). On 2 July 2010, a N. flori-dana (SVL = 534 mm) was collected dead in hoop trap set for turtles at Pond 2 on the SRS (33.255185°N, 81.585210°W). Dis-section revealed two crayfish (species not determined). No addi-tional prey were found, indicating this was not a case of second-ary ingestion. Crayfish are considered a rare diet item for Nerodia spp. and have not been documented in N. floridana (Gibbons and Dorcas 2004. North American Watersnakes: a Natural His-tory. Univ. Oklahoma Press, Norman. 438 pp.). Finally, at 2025 h on 18 December 2012, an adult N. floridana (SVL = ~ 70 cm) was

seen consuming a large Ameiurus sp. (bullhead catfish; Fig. 1) at the edge of a wetland in Grassy Waters Preserve (26.816926°N, 80.174894°W), Palm Beach Co., Florida, USA.

PHILIP VOGRINC, JOHN D. WILLSON, University of Arkansas, De-partment of Biological Sciences, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA (e-mail: jwillson@uark.edu); ANDREW M. DURSO, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA; LARRY A. BRYAN, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, PO Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29803, USA; ZACH ROSS, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA; JOSHUA HOLBROOK, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida 33431, USA; DON FILIPIAK, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, USA.

NERODIA SIPEDON (Northern Watersnake). DIET. Although Gibbons and Dorcas (2004. North American Watersnakes: a Nat-ural History. Univ. Oklahoma Press, Norman. 438 pp.) listed eight species of ictalurid catfish that have been reported in the diet of Nerodia sipedon, their list did not include Pylodictis olivaris (Flathead Catfish). On 4 September 2012, we encountered an adult N. sipedon (total length = 95 cm) in the process of swallow-ing a juvenile P. olivaris (total length = 26 cm). They were found in shallow water along the shoreline of Pollander Lake, an Up-per Mississippi River backwater, immediately upstream from the spillway that extends from Lock and Dam 5A to the Minnesota shoreline, Winona Co., Minnesota, USA (44.080°N, 91.684°W; datum WGS 84). The snake had swallowed most of the head of the catfish, which was still alive when they were observed. Previ-ously, P. olivaris has been found in the diet of three other Nerodia species (Gibbons and Dorcas, op. cit.; Tyson et al. 2008. Herpetol. Rev. 39:472).

MARK A. ROSS (e-mail: maross09@smumn.edu) and PHILIP A. CO-CHRAN (e-mail: pcochran@smumn.edu), Biology Department, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, 700 Terrace Heights, Winona, Minnesota 55987, USA.

PELAMIS PLATURA (Yellow-bellied Seasnake). REPRODUC-TION / MATING BEHAVIOR. The elapid seasnake Pelamis pla-tura has the widest distribution range of any snake, including most of tropical and subtropical Pacific and Indian oceans from Central America to Madagascar. Its reproductive cycle is considered to be continuous throughout the year (Ineich 1988. L’Année Biologique, 4ème sér. 27:93–117) but two birthing peaks have been reported in Costa Rica, one in December and January and another in July and August (Solorzano 2004. Serpientes de Costa Rica. Editorial INBio, Santo Domingo Heredia, Costa Rica. 791 pp.). Solorzano and Sasa (2011. Herpetol. Rev. 42:443–444)

Fig. 1. Nerodia floridana consuming an Ameiurus sp. (bullhead cat-fish) at Grassy Waters Preserve, Palm Beach Co., Florida, USA.

Fig. 1. Copulating Pelamis platura observed on 22 January 2012 off Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.

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