The Function of Oscillatory Tongue-Flicks in Snakes: Insights from Kinematics of Tongue-Flicking in the Banded Water Snake (Nerodia fasciata)

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 883-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Daghfous ◽  
M. Smargiassi ◽  
P.-A. Libourel ◽  
R. Wattiez ◽  
V. Bels
Keyword(s):  
Nerodia Fasciata ◽  
Water Snake ◽  
Tongue Flicking ◽  
Tongue Flicks

Foraging Ecology and Prey Size in the Mangrove Water Snake, Nerodia fasciata compressicauda

Copeia ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 1990 (4) ◽  
pp. 1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Miller ◽  
Henry R. Mushinsky
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Prey Size ◽  
Nerodia Fasciata ◽  
Water Snake

Do lingual behaviors and locomotion by two gekkotan lizards after experimental loss of bitten prey indicate chemosensory search?

1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher S. DePerno ◽  
William E. Cooper ◽  
Laura J. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Vomeronasal System ◽  
Foraging Mode ◽  
Gekko Gecko ◽  
Leopard Gecko ◽  
Prey Chemicals ◽  
Chemical Discrimination ◽  
Tokay Gecko ◽  
Tongue Flicking ◽  
Ambush Foraging ◽  
Tongue Flicks

AbstractPoststrike elevation in tongue-flicking rate (PETF) and strike-induced chemosensory searching (SICS) were assessed experimentally in two species of gekkonoid lizards belonging to families differing in foraging mode. PETF is an increase in rate of lingual protrusions after a prey item has been bitten and escapes or is removed from the mouth of a squamate reptile, whereas SICS is PETF combined with locomotory searching behavior. Eublepharis mucularius, the leopard gecko, is an actively, albeit slowly, foraging eublepharid. This species exhibited PETF for a duration of about five minutes based on total lingual protrusions. Labial-licks were initially much more frequent than tongue-flicks. A substantial increase in movement occurred during minutes 5-8, hinting that SICS might be present, but was not quite significant. SICS is likely present, as in other actively foraging lizards, but was not conclusively demonstrated. Handling the lizards induced increased locomotion in both the experimental condition and a control condition, presumably accounting for the apparent delay in onset of increased movement. The tokay gecko, Gekko gecko, a gekkonid ambush forager, performed no tongue-flicks, but exhibited PETF based on labial-licks during the first minute. SICS was absent. These findings support the hypothesis that SICS is absent in ambush foraging lizards, which do not use the lingual-vomeronasal system to search for prey. They are suggestive, but equivocal regarding the hypothesis that SICS is present in actively foraging lizards that exhibit lingually mediated prey chemical discrimination. The finding of PETF in G. gecko suggests that this species and several iguanians previously found to increase rates of labial-licking after biting prey may be able to detect prey chemicals.

Elevated tongue-flicking rate to cricket surface chemicals by the arthropodivorous rough green snake Opheodrys aestivus

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
The Other ◽  
Potential Prey ◽  
Additional Species ◽  
Diet Specialization ◽  
Tongue Flicking ◽  
Tongue Flicks ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
Dietary Specialist

AbstractThe rough green snake Opheodrys aestivus is a dietary specialist on insects and other arthropods. In a laboratory experiment, I tested chemosensory responses to chemical cues from several taxa palatable to other snakes and two control stimuli presented on cotton swabs. The snakes tongue-flicked at significantly higher rates in response to cues from crickets than from any of the other stimuli, and none of the other potential prey types elicited more tongue-flicks than cologne, the control for response to an odorous substance irrelevant to feeding. These findings are consistent with existing data for a few other species of snakes that are prey specialists, suggesting that correlated evolution may occur between diet specialization and chemosensory responsiveness to cues from the specialized prey. Tests of additional species of prey specialists are needed to establish whether this hypothesis is correct.

scholarly journals Tantalising tongues: male carpet pythons use chemoreception to differentiate among females

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Bryant ◽  
P. W. Bateman ◽  
P. A. Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Mate Selection ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
Receptive Female ◽  
Breeding Period ◽  
Searching Behaviour ◽  
The Third ◽  
South West ◽  
Male Mate ◽  
Tongue Flicking ◽  
Tongue Flicks

For animals sparsely distributed across a landscape, finding and identifying a receptive female during a short breeding period can be a challenge for males. Many snakes appear to rely on the production of sex-specific pheromones to synchronise the timing of reproductive behaviour. The rare Australian south-west carpet python (Morelia spilota imbricata) displays non-aggressive mating aggregations of up to six males around a receptive female, suggesting that males are responding to some chemical signal that enables multiple males simultaneously to identify and locate the female. We investigated chemoreceptive response (tongue-flicking) of 10 male pythons under laboratory conditions to 12 (randomly ordered) treatments each presented for three minutes. Cutaneous chemicals (dissolved in hexane solvent) were collected on cotton buds from the skin of six female pythons and male responses to these were compared with six control treatments. Male pythons produced a greater number of tongue flicks during the first minute of each trial, with fewer in minutes 2 and 3. Male chemoreceptive response in the third minute varied significantly between treatments and was only maintained for trials presenting cutaneous chemicals collected from the three relatively largest female pythons. This experiment suggests that male carpet pythons can use chemoreception to obtain information about their social environment, identifying pheromone cues from large, potentially fecund females. This ability would be adaptive for male mate-selection behaviour and is likely to also reduce costs of searching behaviour.

Chemosensory discrimination of plant and animal foods by the omnivorous iguanian lizard Pogona vitticeps

2000 ◽  
Vol 78 (8) ◽  
pp. 1375-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E Cooper, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Bearded Dragon ◽  
Chemical Discrimination ◽  
Pogona Vitticeps ◽  
Preferred Foods ◽  
Alfalfa Sprouts ◽  
Tongue Flicking ◽  
Tongue Flicks

Most iguanian lizards are insectivores that do not use chemical cues sampled by tongue-flicking to identify prey before attacking, but the sole iguanian herbivore previously studied did so. To investigate the effects of a partially herbivorous diet on responses to food chemicals, I conducted an experiment to determine whether the omnivorous bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) has a similar ability. Chemical stimuli from crickets and carrots, both preferred foods, and alfalfa sprouts, and deionized water (a nonpreferred food and odorless control, respectively) were presented on cotton-tipped applicators. The lizards responded more strongly to both preferred foods than to the controls, performing more tongue flicks and biting the cotton in a greater number of trials. It is hypothesized that lingually mediated food-chemical discrimination is useful to herbivorous and omnivorous lizards for identifying plant and animal foods and for evaluating the quality of plant foods. The insectivorous ambush foragers ancestral to P. vitticeps could not locate prey by tongue-flicking repeatedly at an ambush post and do not exhibit prey-chemical discrimination. Adding plants to the diet altered the selective milieu because plants approached using visual cues can be evaluated using chemical cues, allowing the evolution of the ability to discriminate between plant-food chemicals. The ability to identify animal prey by tongue-flicking may have evolved through correlated evolution with chemosensory identification of plants or specifically for locating or identifying immobile prey.

Prothrombin-Activator (Thromboplastin) Generation in the Blood of Water Snake (Natrix piscator)

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 747-748
Author(s):  
V M Srivastava ◽  
B Dube ◽  
R K Dube ◽  
G P Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
One Stage ◽  
Water Snake ◽  
Generation Test ◽  
Mammalian System

SummaryThe generation of prothrombin-activator (thromboplastin) in water snake (Natrix piscator) is clearly delayed, Compared to a mammalian system, but the final activity is well comparable to that in man, when homologous sources of “phospholipid” (erythrocyte-lysate) and of substrate plasma are employed in one stage “thromboplastin generation test”. The use of heterologous source of either of the above reagents resulted in significantly longer clotting times; hence the need for homologous source of above reagents in the test is emphasized for comparative studies on animal haemostasis.

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