Diet and foraging behaviour of three ecologically little-known African forest snakes: Meizodon coronatus, Dipsadoboa duchesnei and Hapsidophrys lineatus

The diet of three little-known colubrid snakes (Meizodon coronatus, Dipsado boa duchesnei and Hapsidophrys lineatus) were studied in the rainforest reg ion of southern Nigeria (West Africa). Lizards were the unique prey type fo und in stomachs of free-ranging M, coronatus, but there were remains of art hropods in feces of some specimens, possibly secondarily ingested by snakes . D. duchesnei preyed only upon anurans, both arboreal and terrestrial. H. lineatus had a more generalist diet, based mainly on anurans and lizards. H . lineatus and D. duchesnei, both arboreal, had similar foraging strategies in that they consumed very small prey in comparison with their own body si ze, but differed in that It. lineatus is both diurnal and nocturnal, wherea s D. duchesnei is typically nocturnal. By contact, M. coronatus is cryptic and is likely to be somewhat ecologically equivalent to Coronella austriaca in Europe.