western France.- Herpetological Journal, London; 19:135-142. RAHmAN, S. C. & RASHid, S. m. A. & dAS,K. & JENKiNS, C. & LuiSELLi, L. (2013): monsoon doesmatter: annual activity patterns in a snake assemblagefrom Bangladesh.- Herpetological Journal, London;23: 203-208. ROSEN, P. C. & LOWE, C. H. (1994):Highway mortality of snakes in the Sonoran desert ofsouthern Arizona.- Biological Conservation, Oxford;68: 143-148. ROW, J. R. & BLOuiN-dEmERS, G. &WEATHERHEAd, P. J. (2007): demographic effects ofroad mortality in black ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta).-Biological Conservation, Oxford; 137: 117-124.RuGiERO, L. & miLANA, G. & PETROZZi, F. & CAPuLA,m. & LuiSELLi, L. (2013): Climate-change-relatedshifts in annual phenology of a temperate snake duringthe last 20 years. - Acta Oecologica, Paris; 51: 42-48.SHEPARd, d. B. & dRESLiK, m. J. & JELLEN, B. C. &PHiLLiPS, C. A. (2008): Reptile road mortality aroundan oasis in the illinois Corn desert with emphasis onthe endangered eastern massasauga.- Copeia, AnnArbor; 2008: 350-359.

KEY WORdS: Reptilia: Squamata: Serpentes:Colubridae; Zamenis longissimus; roadkill; long-termstudy; rainfall; temperature; habitat; ecology; Tolfamountains, Province of Latium, italy

SuBmiTTEd: February 21, 2017 AuTHORS: Lorenzo RuGiERO 1); massimo

CAPuLA 2); dario CAPiZZi 3); Giovanni AmORi 4);Giuliano miLANA 4); manuela LAi 5) & Luca LuiSELLi(Corresponding author < l.luiselli@ideccngo.org >) 5)

1) Via domenico Cimarosa 15, 00198 Roma, italy 2) museo Civico di Zoologia, Via Aldrovandi

18, 00197 Roma, italy 3) ARP – Agenzia Regionale Parchi - Regione

Lazio, via del Pescaccio 96, 00166 Roma, italy 4) CNR – National Research Council of italy -

iSE - institute for Ecosystem Studies, via dell’uni -versità 32, 00181 Roma, italy

5) institute for development, Ecology, Conserv -ation and Cooperation, via G. Tomasi di Lampedusa 33,00144 Roma, italy; and department of Applied andEnvironmental Biology, Rivers State university ofScience and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

defensive behavior of a juvenileCrotalus durissusLiNNAEuS, 1758

On 16 February 2017, at 20:35 h, thefirst author observed a particular defensivebehavior displayed by a juvenile CascabelRattlesnake, Crotalus durissus LiNNAEuS,1758, in a Cerrado area in the Estação Eco -lógica de itirapina (22.2304°S, 47.8190°W,WGS84; 783 m a.s.l.), northeastern State ofSão Paulo, Brazil. The rattlesnake (snout-vent-length: 640 mm; tail length: 60 mm)was found crossing a trail located at the

edge of a forest fragment. With theapproach of the observer the species exhib-ited the be havior of dorso-ventral flatteningor rather lateral spreading of the body (Fig.1). This behavior, which is displayed toappear larger, is related to the snakes’ mor-phological characteristics, visually orientedpredators, habitat use (GREENE 1979) andphylogeny (mARTiNS et al. 2008). Recently,a number of variations in the behavior of C.durissus were recorded, ranging from arbo-real habitat use (BENíCiO 2016) to swim-ming (FERRANTE et al. 2015). Body flatten-ing is a common defensive behaviorobserved in various snake species of sever-al families such as dipsadidae (TOZETTi etal. 2009), Elapidae (mARquES 2002) andViperidae (ARAúJO & mARTiNS 2006).However, as to Brazil, there is only onerecord of C. durissus exhibiting this behav-ior of dorso-ventral flattening, and it refersto a snake which was manipulated (SAWAYAet al. 2008). Thus, this is the first record ofC. durissus displaying this type of behaviorwithout being handled, instead upon theapproach of an observer in nature.

ACKNOWLEdGmENTS: The authors thankFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de SãoPaulo (FAPESP, Proc. 2015/11821-0 & 2015/21259-8)for financial support.

REFERENCES: ARAúJO, m. S. & mARTiNS,m. (2006): defensive behaviour in pit vipers of thegenus Bothrops (Serpentes, Viperidae).- The Herpe -tological Journal, London; 16 (3): 297-303. BENíCiO,R. A. (2016): Crota lus durissus (South AmericanRattlesnake) arboreal habitat use.- HerpetologicalReview, New York; 47 (3): 477. FERRANTE, L. &mENEGuCCi, R. C. & mA CHAdO, i. F. (2015): Crotalusdurissus (South American Rattlesnake). Swimmingbehavior to cross geographical barrier.- HerpetologicalReview, New York; 46 (4): 640. GREENE, H. W.(1979): Behavioral convergence in the defensive dis-play of snakes.- Experientia, Basel; 35: 747-748.mARquES, O. A. V. (2002): Natural history of the coralsnake Micrurus decoratus (Elapidae) from the AtlanticForest in southeast Brazil, with comments on possiblemimicry.- Amphibia-Reptilia, Leiden; 23 (2): 228-232.mARTiNS, m. & mARquES, O. A. V. & SAZimA, i.(2008): How to be arboreal and diurnal and still stayalive: microhabitat use, time of activity, and defense inNeotropical forest snakes.- South American Journal ofHerpetology, São Paulo; 3 (1): 58-67. SAWAYA, R. J. &mARquES, O. A. V. & mARTiNS, m. (2008): Compo -sition and natural history of a Cerrado snake assem-blage at itirapina, São Paulo State, southeasternBrazil.- Biota Neotropica, Cam pinas; 8 (2): 127-149.TOZETTi, A. m. & OLiVEiRA, R. B. & PONTES, m. F.(2009): defensive repertoire of Xenodon dorbignyi(Serpentes, dipsadidae).- Biota Neotropica, Campi -nas; 9 (3): 157-163.

SHORT NOTE HERPETOZOA 30 (3/4) Wien, 28. Februar 2018 SHORT NOTE 217

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KEY WORdS: Reptilia: Squamata: SerpentesViperidae; Crotalus durissus; defensive behavior,aposematic behavior, antipredator behavior, dorso-ven-tral flattening, lateral spreading of the body, Brazil

SuBmiTTEd: June 29, 2017AuTHORS: Ronildo A. BENíCiO (Corresponding

author, < benicio.ufscar@gmail.com >) 1) & marciomARTiNS 2)

1) Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia eRecursos Naturais, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e daSaúde, universidade Federal de São Carlos, SãoCarlos, SP, Brazil.

2) departamento de Ecologia, instituto de Bio -ciências, universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP,Brazil; < martinsmrc@usp.br >.

Northwesternmost locality record ofMontivipera xanthina (GRAY, 1849)

in Turkey

The Ottoman Viper, Montivipera xan-thina (GRAY, 1849) is distributed in Turkeyand eastern Greece. its Turkish distributionincludes a large area in the mediterranean,Aegean, marmara and Central Anatoliaregions (BOdENHEimER 1944; BARAN 1976;BAşOğLu & BARAN 1980; NiLSON et al.1988; BARAN et al. 2013). The species isgenerally treated as monotypic (but seeNiLSON & ANdRéN 1986; CATTANEO 2014;STümPEL et al. 2016). The iuCN Red Listof Threatened Species classifies this viper at

the LC (Least Concern) category since 2006(BöHmE et al. 2016).

GRAY (1849) originally described M.xanthina as Daboia xanthina from the ruinsof Xanthos (Kınık) in muğla, southwesternTurkey. many studies were carried out onthe taxonomy and distribution of the species(BOdENHEimER 1944; mERTENS 1952; BA -RAN 1976; BAşOğLu & BARAN 1980; NiL -SON & ANdRéN 1985, 1986; SCHäTTi et al.1991; BETTEX 1993; muLdER 1995; NiLSONet al. 1999; SiNdACO et al. 2000), which ismostly distributed in the west Anatolian partof Turkey. The present note reports a newrecord of M. xanthina, which constitutes thespecies’ northwesternmost known Turkishlocality.

A subadult female roadkill specimen(Fig. 1; sex identified by the absence of pal-pable hemipenes pockets) was found atEnez (Province of Edirne) on the Enez-İpsala highway at night time on June 22,2016 (40°44’757”, 26°08’589”, 5 m a.s.l.).The new locality is shown in Fig. 2 alongwith the known species’ distribution. Aftertaking tissue samples for genetic analyses,the specimen was preserved in a mixture of99 parts of 70 % ethanol and one part of 10 %formaldehyde solution and deposited in theZoology Laboratory of the department ofBiology at the Faculty of Science, Kara -deniz Technical university (Trabzon, TR)under KZL-234/2016, 1♀, Enez, Edirne,

218 SHORT NOTE HERPETOZOA 30 (3/4) Wien, 28. Februar 2018 SHORT NOTE

Fig. 1: A juvenile Crotalus durissus LiNNAEuS, 1758, displaying dorso-ventral flattening of the body as observed at Estação Ecológica de itirapina, State of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil.

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