Yellow-green wrath snake

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Yellow-green wrath snake
Yellow-green wrath snake from the Terra typica (southern France) near Les Rives

Yellow-green wrath snake from the Terra typica (southern France) near Les Rives

Systematics
Subordination : Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily : Adder-like and viper-like (Colubroidea)
Family : Adders (Colubridae)
Subfamily : True snakes (Colubrinae)
Genre : Hierophis
Type : Yellow-green wrath snake
Scientific name
Hierophis viridiflavus
( Lacépède , 1789)
Individual at Les Rives (South of France)

The yellow-green angry snake ( Hierophis viridiflavus , Syn . : Coluber viridiflavus ) is a non-poisonous snake from the family of the adder . It got its name from the fact that it bites when it is caught, whereby after biting it does not immediately let go, but makes a kind of chewing motion. She also empties her bowels and anus glands as a defense reaction .

features

Yellow-green wrath snake from central Italy

The head of the relatively slender snake is clearly separated from the body for an adder , the pupils are round and the scales smooth. Their length averages around 120–150 centimeters, but can also reach 180 centimeters, with females being consistently smaller than males. The snakes can live to be over 30 years old in the wild, with males on average getting a little older. The size difference between males and females can therefore be explained on the one hand by the higher life expectancy - like all snakes, the yellow-green wrath snake grows for a lifetime - on the other hand, the males tend to become sexually mature a little later, which is why they can convert all energy into growth for a longer time. Adult animals, which use a significant amount of their energy to reproduce, no longer grow as fast as young animals.

coloring

The back of the yellow-green wrath snake is blue-black with yellow spots that can flow together to form thin horizontal stripes. Towards the end of the tail, the yellow spots are arranged in longitudinal stripes. The underside is gray to yellowish, rarely reddish and sometimes with black spots. The head is speckled black and yellow.

In addition to this eponymous coloration, melanism and abundism also occur. Melanistic, i.e. completely black animals occur more frequently in northeast Italy, in southern Italy and on Sicily; they are common in the alpine area. While melanistic animals can be more easily detected by predators, in these areas the benefits such as more efficient heat absorption while sunbathing may outweigh the problems. Abundant animals are not completely black, but they have considerably more dark spots than the usual yellow-green animals. In Corsica, Sardinia and the Tuscan Archipelago, this color variant occurs mostly, it is rare in north-east and south of Italy.

Young animals are olive to light gray, the back is covered in front with somewhat darker, reddish-brown spots that take on a paler color towards the tail. The adult color is reached around the age of four.

Scaling

The scales are not keeled. In the middle of the body, the yellow-green angry snake usually has 19 rows of dorsal scales, in rare cases 17 or 21. Males have between 187 and 212 ventral shields , females 197 to 227. Behind this are 95 to 125 paired under tail shields . After the rostral shield there are eight supralabials . There is a scale (pre- ocular ) in front of the eye . After a presubocular , the supralabials border directly on the eye.

Similar species

The yellow-green wrath snake is very similar to the Balkan wrath snake and the distribution areas overlap in the northern Balkans. However, the yellow-green wrath snake is always black and not speckled with yellow. It can also be differentiated by the larger number of tummy tucks.

There are also similarities to the Balkan jumping snake , but the distribution areas do not overlap. There are further similarities to the horseshoe snake , the Algerian wrath snake and the snakes of the genus Elaphe , which however have typical drawing features and more rows of back scales.

Habitat and Distribution

Distribution area of ​​the yellow-green angry snake

The yellow-green angry snake lives in dry, open terrain with vegetation. It can occur in the maquis , in loose trees, in heather areas , dry river valleys, rural gardens, stone walls and ruins up to heights of 1500 meters, rarely up to 2000 meters. Especially in the higher and cooler parts of the distribution area, the yellow-green wrinkle snake prefers terrain edges such as hedges, dry stone walls or the transitions between different habitat types. Presumably the snake can optimally regulate its heat balance there, which it depends on as an active hunter. Since more suitable climatic conditions prevail in central Italy, the yellow-green wrath snake is far less oriented towards edges, but lives just as often in grasslands. Here she only avoids wetlands and areas used for agriculture, but mainly because of the lack of prey or suitable shelter.

Its distribution area extends from western France through southern Switzerland , almost all of Italy to southwest Slovenia and northern Croatia . It is also found on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica , Sardinia , Sicily , Elba , Malta and Krk .

Way of life

Cub

The yellow-green angry snake is diurnal; if she is disturbed, she quickly flees. It lives mainly on the ground, but is also good at climbing and, if necessary, even diving, for example when fleeing. The wrath snake overwinters - sometimes in small groups - in crevices or in caves of mammals. In spring, she sometimes covers long distances to her summer quarters. There she stays in a relatively limited area (an average of 3000 m² in parts of Italy). The number of summer months in which the snake is active varies depending on local climatic conditions: while a population in the cooler French Chizé shows around seven months of activity, populations in southern Italy reach almost ten months.

In the period after the hibernation until around mid-May, mating takes place. The animals become sexually mature between the ages of six and eight. At this point, they are approximately 60% of their maximum height in the wild. Most other species of snakes reach sexual maturity around 70% of their maximum height (a total of between 60 and 75%), with larger species of snakes typically reaching sexual maturity at the lower end of this range. Males engage in comment fights during the mating season by flapping their tails. They travel up to three kilometers in search of females. In June or July the female lays a clutch of 4–15 elongated eggs under stones or dead wood (in Italy mostly 4–7), from which the 20–25 cm long young hatch six to eight weeks later. These mainly feed on small lizards and grasshoppers.

The yellow-green wrath snake prefers to feed on lizards . In addition, mice , small reptiles , birds , snails and insects are preyed on. The prey is swallowed alive. The yellow-green wrath snake is a nimble hunter that usually pursues its prey instead of lurking for it .

The yellow-green angry snake prefers a body temperature of 27.5–31.0 ° C. This relatively high temperature compared to, for example, the Aesculapian snake (21.5-25.5 ° C) is due to active hunting. In order to reach this temperature, the yellow-green angry snake operates active thermoregulation , so looks for exposed places to sunbathe, even if this means an increased risk of being attacked.

Systematics

The first scientific description of the nominate form Hierophis viridiflavus viridiflavus was made in 1789 by La Cépède as Couleuvre verte et jaune . The terra typica is south of France. The subspecies Hierophis viridiflavus carbonarius was described by Bonaparte in 1833 as Coluber viridiflavus carbonarius . While Schätti and Vanni, among others, did not consider the distinction between the subspecies to be justified in 1986, molecular genetic investigations indicate the correctness of the distinction between the two subspecies: The nominate form H. v. viridiflavus lives in the western part of the range in France, Switzerland and on the west coast of Italy during, separated by the Alps and the Apennines , H. v. carbonarius describes the eastern population group.

The genus Coluber comprised species of snakes from Europe, Asia and North America, which are very similar due to their physique, which is specialized in hunting for nimble prey such as lizards. Accordingly, the yellow-green angry snake was also included in the genus Coluber , until molecular biological investigations led to a breakdown of the genus Coluber . Together with the Balkan angry snake and Hierophis spinalis it now forms the genus Hierophis .

The population on the Greek island of Gyaros was first described as Coluber gemonenis gyarosensis as a subspecies of the Balkan wrath snake . In 1993 they were raised to species level by Böhme under the name Gyaros arrow snake ( Coluber gyarosensis ). In 2004, Utiger and Schätti showed that the population on Gyaros are yellow-green angry snakes.

Hazard and protection

Although the Yellow-green whip snake on the Red List of the IUCN is classified as uncritical ( "Least Concern", LC), it is still in some parts become rare, it is about strictly protected in Switzerland due to the small distribution area. In Germany, too, it is strictly protected by the Federal Nature Conservation Act. The yellow-green angry snake is listed in Appendix IV of the Habitats Directive and Appendix II of the Bern Convention . Therefore it is forbidden in the European Union to disturb, catch, kill and trade the animals.

literature

  • P. Heimes: Coluber viridiflavus - Yellow-green angry snake. In: Wolfgang Böhme (Hrsg.): Handbook of the reptiles and amphibians in Europe. Volume 3/1: Snakes (Serpentes). Aula, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-89104-003-2 , pp. 177-198.
  • Ulrich Gruber: The snakes in Europe and around the Mediterranean. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 978-3-440-05753-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Nicholas Arnold, Denys Ovenden: Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe (Collins Field Guide) . Collins, London 2004, ISBN 978-0-00-219964-3 , pp. 207 .
  2. ↑ a b c Sara Fornasiero: Effects of insularity on life-history traits and on chemical communication in Hierophis viridiflavus: a widespread European colubrid (Reptilia: Serpentes) . Pisa 2008 ( PDF , 3.2 MB [accessed August 2, 2010]).
  3. ↑ Marco AL Zuffi: Color pattern variation in populations of the European Whip snake, Hierophis viridiflavus: does geography explain everything? In: Amphibia-Reptilia . tape 29 , no. 2 , 2008, p. 229-233 , doi : 10.1163 / 156853808784124929 .
  4. ↑ Beat Schätti: The Phylogenetic Significance of Morphological Characters in the Holarctic Racers of the Genus Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 (Reptilia, Serpentes) . In: Amphibia-Reptilia . tape 8 , no. 4 , 1987, pp. 401-415 , doi : 10.1163 / 156853887X00171 .
  5. ↑ Stefano Scali, Marco Mangiacotti, Anna Bonardi: Living on the edge: habitat selection of Hierophis viridiflavus . In: Acta Herpetologica . tape 3 , no. 2 . Firenze University Press, 2008, ISSN  1827-9643 , pp. 85-97 .
  6. ↑ Axel Kwet: European Reptile and Amphibian Guide . New Holland, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84773-444-0 .
  7. ^ A b Massimo Capula, Ernesto Filippi, Luca Luiselli, Veronica Trujillo Jesus: The ecology of the Western Whip Snake (Coluber viridiflavus Lacépède, 1789) in Mediterranean Central Italy . In: Herpetozoa . tape 10 , July 1997, p. 65-79 .
  8. ↑ Hervé Lelièvre, Maxime Le Hénanff, Gabriel Blouin-Demers, Guy Naulleau, Olivier Lourdais: Thermal strategies and energetics in two sympatric colubrid snakes with contrasted exposure . In: Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology . tape 180 , no. 3 , March 2010, p. 415-425 , doi : 10.1007 / s00360-009-0423-8 .
  9. ↑ Hierophis viridiflavus in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  10. ↑ a b Z. T. Nagy, R. Lawson, U. Joger, M. Wink: Molecular systematics of racers, whipsnakes and relatives (Reptilia: Colubridae) using mitochondrial and nuclear markers . In: Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research . tape 42 , no. 3 . Blackwell Verlag, 2004, ISSN  0947-5745 , p. 223–233 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1439-0469.2004.00249.x ( PDF , 0.2 MB [accessed June 4, 2010]). PDF ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-heidelberg.de
  11. ↑ Ulrich Joger, Daniela Guicking, Svetlana Kalyabina-Hauf, Peter Lenk, Zoltan T. Nagy, Michael Wink: Phylogeography, speciation and post-Pleistocene immigration of Central European reptiles . In: M. Schlüpmann, H.-K. Nettmann (Hrsg.): Journal for field herpetology . tape 10 , April 2006, p. 29-59 .
  12. ↑ J. Speybroeck, P.-A. Crochet: Species list of the European herpetofauna - a tentative update . In: Podarcis . tape 8 , 2007, p. 8–34 ( PDF , 1.7 MB).
  13. ^ R. Mertens: A black snake from the Cyclades: Coluber gemonensis gyarosensis n. Subsp . In: Senckenbergiana biologica . tape 49 , 1968, pp. 181-189 .
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Böhme: Coluber gyarosensis - Gyaros arrow snake . In: Handbook of reptiles and amphibians in Europe - Snakes (Serpentes) I . Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-89104-003-2 , p. 111-114 .
  15. ↑ U. Utiger, B. Schätti: Morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the Cyprus races, Hierophis cypriensis, and the systematic status of Coluber gemonensis gyarosensis Mertens (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubrinae) . In: Rev. Suisse Zoologie . tape 111 , 2004, p. 225-238 .
  16. ↑ Hierophis viridiflavus in the Red List of Endangered Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: Milan Vogrin, Claudia Corti, Valentin Pérez Mellado, Paulo Sá-Sousa, Marc Cheylan, Juan M. Pleguezuelos, Andreas Meyer, Benedikt Schmidt, Roberto Sindaco, Antonio Romano , Iñigo Martínez-Solano, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2010.
  17. ↑ Jean-Claude Monney, Andreas Meyer: Red List of threatened reptiles in Switzerland . In: Federal Office for the Environment, Forests and Landscape and Coordination Office for Amphibian and Reptile Protection in Switzerland (Ed.): SAEFL series: Vollzug Umwelt . Bern 2005 ( PDF , 0.7 MB). PDF ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.karch.ch
  18. ↑ Scientific Information System for International Species Protection (WISIA): Taxon Information . As of July 2009.

Web links

Commons : Yellow-green angry snake ( Hierophis viridiflavus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files