Museum specimens of the Leopard snake, Zamenis situlus, were considered for these observations. Strong sexual size dimorphism was evident when raw data were considered. Males had longer body sizes and longer tails than females; also head length and width, but not interorbital distance, were greater than those of females. Subcaudal scales were higher in number in males, while ventral and total scales were similar among sexes. When influence of sex and covariation of snout to vent length were controlled for log transformed data, it was found that head size features varied according to snout to vent length and no effect of sex was detected. Growth trajectories are likely similar between sexes and suggest that male maturity is reached at older age than that of females.
The observations on the biometry and the reproductive biology of the Leopard snake, Zamenis situlus, in Italy
ZUFFI, MARCO ALBERTO LUCA;
2004-01-01
Abstract
Museum specimens of the Leopard snake, Zamenis situlus, were considered for these observations. Strong sexual size dimorphism was evident when raw data were considered. Males had longer body sizes and longer tails than females; also head length and width, but not interorbital distance, were greater than those of females. Subcaudal scales were higher in number in males, while ventral and total scales were similar among sexes. When influence of sex and covariation of snout to vent length were controlled for log transformed data, it was found that head size features varied according to snout to vent length and no effect of sex was detected. Growth trajectories are likely similar between sexes and suggest that male maturity is reached at older age than that of females.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
