Dolichophis caspius, is one of Europe’s largest snakes, reaching lengths of up to 2.5 metres (Glandt, 2010). Their range stretches from the Balkans and southern Hungary through Turkey, southern Ukraine, southern Russia and to west Kazakhstan and northern Azerbaijan (Arnold and Ovenden, 2004; Sindaco, Venchi and Grieco, 2013). They are found in dry, open habitats with some vegetation or cover (Arnold and Ovenden, 2004). Young D. caspius are largely herpetophagous with adults also feeding on small mammals and occasionally birds and (Arnold and Ovenden, 2004). While D. caspius feeding on small snakes is widely reported (Arnold and Ovenden, 2004) there are few documented observations of ophiophagy in D. caspius with the majority of these observations from populations in the west of the species’ range. A Web of Knowledge search for “(“Dolichophis caspius” OR “Coluber caspius”) AND (diet OR predat* OR ophiophagy)“ returned only two articles: Cattaneo (2001) and Cattaneo (2003). Cattaneo (2001) found D. caspius preying on Natrix natrix on the Greek island of Lemnos and speculates that ophiophagy is likely to be more common than recorded. Cattaneo (2003) while not recording any first hand sightings of ophiophagy found reports from local residents of the island of Lesbos of D. caspius predating Montivipera xanthina. In a report on herpetological surveys in western Turkey Cattaneo (2012) found a large male D. caspius that had swallowed a full-grown M. xanthina.

On 9 June 2013 at 0745 hours while walking along the side of an irrigation channel in the dry steppe of

central Kalmykia, southern Russia, at 46°23’17.16”N, 45°0’21.96”E an adult D. caspius was encountered in the process of swallowing an adult Elaphe dione (Figure 1) head first. The disturbance caused by the observer resulted in the D. caspius disgorging the E. dione and retreating. It was not possible to accurately measure the length of the preyed upon E. dione however comparisons against equipment carried estimate its length to be approximately 85 cm.

This observation confirms that ophiophagy occurs in eastern populations of D. caspius and may be more common than widely believed. It also shows that D. caspius is not restricted to preying on small snakes (as is widely quoted) and can overcome and attempt to swallow snakes over 80 cm in length.

References

Arnold, N., Ovenden, D. (2004): Collins Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe, 2nd Edition. London, Harper Collins.

Cattaneo, A. (2001): L’erpetofauna delle isole egee di Thassos, Samothraki e Lemnos. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 52: 155-181.

Cattaneo, A. (2003): Note erpetologiche sulle isole Egee di Lesvos, Chios e Samos. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 54: 95-116.

Cattaneo, A. (2012): Osservazioni sull’erpetofauna di alcune localita della Turchia costiera occidentale comprese tra i fiumi Küçük e Büyük Menderes). Atti del Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma 23: 15-24.

Glandt, D. (2010): Taschenlexikon der Amphibien und Reptilien Europas. Wiebelsheim, Quelle and Meyer Verlag.

Sindaco, R., Venchi, A., & Grieco, C. (2013): The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic, Volume 2: Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Snakes of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. Latina, Edizioni Belvedere.

Herpetology Notes, volume 7: 165-166 (2014) (published online on 11 April 2014)

Predation of Elaphe dione (Pallas, 1773) by Dolichophis caspius (Gmelin, 1789) (Squamata: Colubridae)

Leejiah Dorward

Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK

Corresponding author; e-mail: leejiah@gmail.com

Leejiah Dorward166

Figure 1. Adult Dolichophis caspius while disgorging an adult Elaphe dione along the side of an irrigation channel in the dry steppe of central Kalmykia, southern Russia

Accepted by Philip de Pous