Morphological and structural differences between the hemipenes and hemiclitores of golden lancehead snakes, Bothrops insularis (Amaral, 1922), revealed by radiography

Abstract

The golden lancehead (Bothrops insularis) is a critically endangered and island endemic snake. A remarkable characteristic of golden lanceheads is the high frequency of females showing hemiclitores. Here, we use radiography to identify morphological and structural differences between the hemipenes and hemiclitores in captive individuals. Sex was identified using the probing method and confirmed by visualizing the gonads by ultrasound. Hemipenes appeared as herringbone-shaped structures with bone radiopacity and hemiclitores as triangular structures with soft tissue radiopacity. These differences suggest that hemiclitores spines fail to develop the level of ossification observed in hemipenis spines.