. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. Morphology and Systematics of the Pseudoxyrhopus Group • Cadle 423. Figure 15. Adults of two of the larger species of Liophidium. Top: Liophidium rhodogaster (MCZ 181172, total iengtti = 533 mm). Bottom: Liophidium torquatum (MCZ 181305, total length) = 654 mm). ity pattern is known to occur among close- ly related snakes (even varying geographi- arhadinaea was nocturnal. However, as with their statements concerning dentition for this genus, this behavioral statement is based on observations for Ex- allodontaphis alhi
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. Morphology and Systematics of the Pseudoxyrhopus Group • Cadle 423. Figure 15. Adults of two of the larger species of Liophidium. Top: Liophidium rhodogaster (MCZ 181172, total iengtti = 533 mm). Bottom: Liophidium torquatum (MCZ 181305, total length) = 654 mm). ity pattern is known to occur among close- ly related snakes (even varying geographi- arhadinaea was nocturnal. However, as with their statements concerning dentition for this genus, this behavioral statement is based on observations for Ex- allodontaphis alhionaci. Porarhadinaea melanogaster is probablv diurnal, as indicated by a single observa- tion (see discussion of character 11). cally or seasonally within some species; see Cadle and Greene, 1993). One could even speculate that the divergence in activity pattern between Liophidium and the other genera might have been promoted by their presumed strong overlap in dietary re- sources (see Schoener, 1989, for discussion of divergence in activity pattern as a re- sponse to dietary overlap). This divergence would be predicated only on their shared food resource and not on any special evo- lutionary relationship between the snakes. In Madagascar, terrestrial to cryptozoic snakes such as Pseudoxyrhopus would en- counter few other nocturnal snake com- petitors. Aside from the nocturnal mem- bers of the Pseudoxyrhopus group and Madagascarophis (medium-size to large terrestrial snakes, usually one species per locality), Madagascar's snake fauna is es- sentially devoid of terrestrial nocturnal snakes (in contrast to arboreal nocturnal snakes of the genera Geodipsas, Lyco- dryas, and Stenophis). Nevertheless, it does seem implausible that skinks or ger- rhosaurids are such limiting resources as to have effected competition (and there- fore temporal divergence in activity) be- tween Liophidium and nocturnal species of the Pseudoxyrhopus group; these hzards are abundant in areas where the s
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