Crotalus cerberus
{{Short description|Species of snake}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Arizona Black Rattlesnake Beauty Shot.jpg
| genus = Crotalus
| species = cerberus
| authority = (Coues In Wheeler, 1875)
| synonyms = * Caudisona lucifer var. cerberus Coues In Wheeler, 1875
- [Crotalus oreganus] Var. cerberus – Garman, 1884
- Crotalus viridis cerberus
– Klauber, 1949McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. {{ISBN|1-893777-00-6}} (series). {{ISBN|1-893777-01-4}} (volume). - Crotalus oreganus cerberus
– Ashton & de Queiroz, 2001{{cite journal | last1 = Ashton | first1 = KG | last2 = de Queiroz | first2 = A | year = 2001 | title = Molecular systematics of the western rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis (Viperidae), with comments on the utility of the d-loop in phylogenetic studies of snakes | url = http://www.cnah.org/pdf_files/30.pdf | journal = Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume = 21 | issue = 2 | pages = 176–189 | doi = 10.1006/mpev.2001.1013 | pmid = 11697914 | bibcode = 2001MolPE..21..176A | access-date = 2008-09-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092252/http://www.cnah.org/pdf_files/30.pdf | archive-date = 2007-09-29 | url-status = dead }} - Crotalus cerberus – Hoser, 2009{{NRDB species |genus=Crotalus |species=cerberus |accessdate=16 June 2020}}
}}
Crotalus cerberus is a venomous pit viper species{{ITIS |id=683063 |taxon=Crotalus cerberus |accessdate=1 August 2007}} found in the southwestern United States. It is known as the Arizona black rattlesnake, black rattlesnake, and several other common names.Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. {{ISBN|0-8014-0463-0}}.
Description
According to Wright and Wright (1957), adults grow to an average length of {{convert|78|-|109|cm|in|abbr=on}}. Klauber (1997) reports the maximum length to be less at {{convert|1,032|mm|in|frac=8|abbr=on}}, with the smallest gravid female measuring {{convert|701|mm|in|frac=8|abbr=on}}.Klauber LM. 1997. Rattlesnakes: Their Habitats, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind. Second Edition. 2 volumes. Reprint, University of California Press, Berkeley. {{ISBN|0-520-21056-5}}. Hubbs and O'Connor (2012) list an adult size range of {{convert|812|-|1219|mm|in|abbr=on}}.Hubbs, Brian and Brendan O'Connor. 2012. A Guide to the Rattlesnakes and other Venomous Serpents of the United States. Tricolor Books. Tempe, Arizona, 129 pp. {{ISBN|978-0-9754641-3-7}}. (Crotalus cerberus, pp. 34-35.)
The color pattern consists of a dark grayish, brownish black, reddish brown, or blackish ground color, overlaid with a dorsal pattern of blotches that are rectangular anteriorly, becoming subhexagonal posteriorly, eventually becoming crossbands just before the tail. However, specimens also may be a uniform dark color without any clear dorsal pattern, or the dorsal blotches may be even darker and bordered with white, cream, or yellow transverse rows of scales, or the color pattern may be quite pale with a significant amount of yellow mixed in. A postocular stripe is evident in lightly colored specimens, but not so much in darker ones.Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 volumes. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 plates. {{ISBN|0-8014-4141-2}}.
Color change
Arizona black rattlesnakes undergo morphological color change (gradual change due to changes in number or quality of chromatophores); adults are less patterned than juveniles (also called ontogenetic color change).{{cite conference |last1=Amarello |first1=Melissa |last2=Smith |first2=Jeffrey J. |title=A snake of a different color: physiological color change in Arizona black rattlesnakes |date=2009 |url=http://www.snakes.ngo/amarello_smith_2009.pdf |format=poster}} Some adults can change color relatively quickly (physiological color change: rapid change due to movement of organelles within chromatophores), an ability shared not only with chameleons and other lizards but also with other snakes such as some species in the genus Tropidophis. The mechanism for their physiological color change is likely the same as that documented in the closely related prairie rattlesnake (melanin movement within their dermal melanophores),{{cite journal |last1=Rahn |first1=Hermann |title=The pituitary regulation of melanophores in the rattlesnake |journal=The Biological Bulletin |date=1941 |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=228–237 |doi=10.2307/1537600 |jstor=1537600 |s2cid=89145387 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/1537600|url-access=subscription }} but further research is needed to determine the stimuli for this phenomenon in this rattlesnake.
Common names
Geographic range
Found in the United States, in Arizona from the Hualapai Mountains and Cottonwood Cliffs in the northwest of the state, southeast to the Santa Catalina, Rincon, Pinaleno and Blue Mountains. Also found at Steeple Rock, in extreme western New Mexico. The type locality given is "San Francisco Mountains" (Coconino County, Arizona, USA).
Diet
Reproduction
Sexually mature females bear live young in broods of 4 to 21 neonates. The Arizona black rattlesnake is the first species of snake observed to exhibit complex social behavior,{{cite thesis | last1 = Amarello | first1 = Melissa | year = 2012 | title = Social Snakes? Non-random association patterns detected in a population of Arizona black rattlesnakes | url = https://melissaamarello.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Amarello2012MS.pdf | type = Unpublished Masters Thesis | publisher = Arizona State University | access-date = 2019-10-20 | archive-date = 2019-04-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190404205508/https://melissaamarello.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Amarello2012MS.pdf | url-status = dead }} and like all temperate pit vipers, care for their babies. Females remain with their young in nests for 7 to 14 days, and mothers have been observed cooperatively parenting their broods.{{cite journal | last1 = Amarello | first1 = Melissa | last2 = Smith | first2 = Jeffrey | last3 = Slone | first3 = John | year = 2011 | title = Family values: Maternal care in rattlesnakes is more than mere attendance | journal = Nature Precedings | doi = 10.1038/npre.2011.6671.1 | doi-access = free }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110126213405/http://www.nps.gov/archive/tont/nature/snakeblack.htm Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus] at the [https://www.nps.gov/index.htm National Park Service]. Accessed 18 June 2008.
{{Taxonbar|from1=Q3003829|from2=Q5188959}}
Category:Snakes of North America
Category:Endemic reptiles of the United States
Category:Fauna of the Southwestern United States
Category:Fauna of the Sonoran Desert
Category:Natural history of Arizona
Category:Natural history of New Mexico