Kapuas water snake
| Kapuas water snake | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Homalophis gyii | ||||||||||||
| ( Murphy , Voris & Auliya , 2005) |
The Kapuas mud snake ( Homalophis gyii , Syn. : Enhydris gyii ), similar to its English common name Kapuas mud snake as Kapuas mud snake called, is a mirage Natter from Borneo that can change color like a chameleon. It was discovered in the wetlands around the Kapuas River in the Betung National Park . The adder from the Indonesian part of Borneo got its scientific name Homalophis gyii in honor of the snake researcher Ko Ko Gyi from Burma .
It remains unclear why the venomous snake can change its color. Usually these snakes use their venom to protect themselves from attackers. However, the change in color may be beneficial when hunting. It becomes about half a meter long.
discovery
The Kapuas water snake was discovered in 2005 by Mark Auliya , an employee of the Zoological Research Institute and Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn , on Borneo in the area of the Kapuas River. In the meantime, morphological comparisons with the close relative Homalophis doriae have ensured that this snake is a new species that presumably only occurs in the named habitat, i.e. endemic .
Color change
The zoologist caught the red-brown animal and kept it in a lockable bucket for transport. When he tried to take it out of the bucket again, he found that the animal had changed color and was now white. Otherwise, the approximately half a meter long, captured individual was not distinguished by any other special features.
But it remains questionable why this snake can discolour. In other animals that change color with the help of so-called chromatophores , colored cells in the skin that are controlled by muscles, this happens e.g. B. for camouflage (e.g. chameleons ), to absorb heat (e.g. agamas ) or also to show their state of mind (e.g. octopuses ). However, this phenomenon has not been observed in snakes or has been observed very rarely, which makes the Kapuas water snake quite unique. It is believed that this color change is used in hunting and thus gives the snake a selective advantage.
Web links
- Enhydris gyii inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: Murphy, J., 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
- Homalophis gyii in The Reptile Database
- "Chameleon" snake discovered
literature
- John C. Murphy, Harold K. Voris, Mark Auliya (2005): A new species of Enhydris (Serpentes: Colubridae: Homalopsinae) from the Kapuas river system, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 53 (2), pp. 271-275. ( PDF )