Coral snake

The term coral snakes applies to a wide group of Serpent S Elapidae which can be divided into two distinct groups, the group of the new world and the coral snakes of the old world. They make the parties of most poisonous world.

Description

The coral snakes are the best known ones for their red, yellow Newton's rings and black. Some said that if the red touched the black the species in question was not poisonous, but that is false. The coral snakes can have various aspects. Certain species have only red and black rings, or do not have any ring of the whole.

The colors very sharp of the coral snake are a warning for the other animals. Indeed, its enemies know that they mean that this snake is very poisonous. One counts about thirty species coral snakes dispersed in the tropical forests of four continents: South Africa, America of the Center and the South, Southern Asia and Asia. The most widespread species ( Micrurus lemniscatus ) is found in the tropical valleys of Mexico and the Central America like all the Amazonian Sylve.

Attacked, the most dangerous snakes remain without defense if one catches them by behind the head. As some said as the coral snake prefers to draw the attention of its enemy to the end of his tail.

Types and varieties

There exist several varieties different of Coral snakes. One calls simply Corail, or true Coral the Micrurus which is declined in several types:

Micrurus Collaris whose colors are black shining with a white collar, yellow or red.
Micrurus Hemprichii whose body is coloured in alternation of white rings, black and orange.
Micrurus lemniscatus lemniscatus ; alternation of white, black and red rings. This subspecies is finer than Micrurus lemniscatus diutus .
Micrurus lemniscatus diutus ; alternation of yellow, black, red rings.
very variable Micrurus psyches with the colors, if not that its rings never form triads.
Micrurus surinamensis ; it is most massive of Micrurus that one finds in Guyana. Its rings are laid out very regularly: a broad black ring surrounded by two yellow rings then two black narrower, the whole surrounded by red rings. Its size can reach jusq' with 1,3 meters. It is a night, terrestrial and semi-watery snake. He lives at the edge of the splits and is mainly ichtyophage. It is a very good swimmer. One can also meet it in perish-urban zone and in the rice plantations.

Many of another snakes which are not of the type Micrurus are indexed under the name of Coral snakes.

Maticora bivirgata , protéroglyphe, the largest coral snake, can measure up to 2 meters length. It nourishes small snakes quite as poisonous which pullulate in the primary forests which are its natural habitat (though one can also find it in secondary forests). This night snake is of a splendid blue harms bordered of two clearer bands on the sides. There exist three subspecies: the Maticora bivirgata bivirgata which is found in the forests of Java, the Maticora bivirgata flaviceps in Burma, in Thailand, in Kampuchea, in Western Malaysia, in Singapore, Sumatra and in the archipelago of Riau and finally the Maticora bivirgata tetrataenia that one meets in Borneo.
Maticora intestinalis ; the Coral snake with bands of Malaysia can reach 50 cm but its neurotoxic venom is not less striking down. One especially finds it in forest but it can also be in the gardens and the parks; it nourishes snakes and mainly small Ramphotyphlops braminus of the family of the Thylopidae. It is recognizable with the orange red band which run on its back and with the pale line which is on its sides. Threatened, it shows its belly which alternates black and white bands (except for the end the tail which is same orange red the very sharp one). One finds it in the south of the Thailand, in the Malaise peninsula, with Borneo, Java, Sumatra and in the Filipino .

Imitation

There exist several nonpoisonous species which have a similar coloring as Lampropeltis triangulum which is inoffensive (being a colubridés) or Anilius Scytale , representing of the family of the Aniliidae, commonly called Faux Coral , him also quite as inoffensive.

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