Adder (disambiguation)
Adder is the name of several snakes, most belonging to the viper family, especially the Viperinae subfamily (pitless vipers). However, there are a few exceptions: the death adder is not a viperid at all, but a member of the family Elapidae (cobras and coral snakes); and the totally harmless hognose snakes (members of the Colubridae family) are sometimes referred to as puff adders because of their threat display.
"Adders"
| Common name | Scientific name | Geographic range |
|---|---|---|
| Baran's adder | Vipera barani | Turkey |
| Death adder | Acanthophis | Australia, New Guinea |
| European adder | Vipera berus | Europe and Asia |
| Forest-steppe adder | Vipera nikolskii | Ukraine |
| Night adders | Causus sp. | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Puff adder | Heterodon sp. | United States |
| Puff adders | Bitis sp. | Africa, southern Arabian Peninsula |
| Pontic adder | Vipera pontica | Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon |
Etymology
The word was nædre in Old English, which developed into nadder or naddre; in the 14th century a nadder was, like a napron, reinterpreted as an adder. It appears with the generic meaning of serpent in the older forms of many Germanic languages, including Old High German natra and Gothic nadrs. It is thus used in the Old English version of the Christian Scriptures for the devil, the serpent of Genesis.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
