Preliminary Insights into the Habitat Preferences of the Centralian Bandy Bandy （Vermicella vermiformis）（Squamata： Elapidae） in Central Australia

Abstract

Bandy Bandy’s(Vermicella spp.)are a striking,black-and-white ringed genus of small elapid snakes endemic to Australia.All taxa are burrowers and little is known of their biology and ecology.We investigated the habitat preferences of the only arid-dwelling species,the centralian bandy bandy(Vermicella vermiformis),in the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.Using systematic road-cruising,we encountered 16V.vermiformis over a 12 months period between 2009 and 2010.We used logistic regression to model the occurrence of the species against a range of different habitat variables collected at multiple scales.Despite the small sample size,V.vermiformis exhibited a clear preference for acacia shrubland habitats,with acacia variables present in all AICc ranked models in the 95%confidence set.The factors driving this association,together with the preference for habitat not burnt in the most recent wildfires,may be related to the abundance of their only known prey,blind snakes(Ramphotyphlops spp.).