Check List 17(4): 1187-1193, doi: 10.15560/17.4.1187
The presence of Dry Forest Racer, Masticophis mentovarius (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) (Squamata, Colubridae), in the Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica
Steven Gallo-Gutiérrez‡, Jerson Arturo Santamaría Martinez§, Lucía I. López§, José Manuel Mora|§‡ Santa Elena, Monteverde, Monteverde, Costa Rica§ Universidad Técnica Nacional, Alajuela, Costa Rica| Portland State University, Portland, United States of America
Corresponding author: José Manuel Mora ( josemora07@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Julie Ray © Steven Gallo-Gutiérrez, Jerson Arturo Santamaría Martinez, Lucía I. López, José Manuel Mora. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
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Abstract
Masticophis mentovarius (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) occurs at low and moderate elevations in Lowland Dry Forest and Premontane Moist Forest. This species is known in Costa Rica mainly from the dry lowlands of the northwest. Here we report the presence of M. mentovarius at the Tropical Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, at 1275 m a.s.l. The new records provide information on the true limits of the distribution of species and may represent expansion of the species’ range due to environmental changes caused by global climate change.
Keywords
Climate change, Neotropical Coachwhip, Premontane Wet Forest, reptile, snake, Tilarán mountain range