Forskal's sand snake
| Forskal's sand snake | ||||||||||||
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Forskal's sand snake ( Psammophis schokari ) |
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| Psammophis schokari | ||||||||||||
| ( Forsskal , 1775) |
Fors (s) kals sand snake ( Psammophis schokari ), also known as sand snake for short , is a species of snake from the Lamprophiidae family . The distribution area extends from North Africa with Libya and Egypt over the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East to Pakistan , southern Turkmenistan and northwestern India . It has furrow teeth in the back of the jaw that are connected to poison glands and is therefore assigned to the non- monophyletic group of snakes .
features
Forskal's sand snake is a medium-sized snake and reaches an average length of about 100 to 120 cm. Like other sand snakes, it is a very slender, long-looking snake. The body color is light olive, light chestnut brown, gray-brown or yellowish. The back and flank drawing consists of light-dark longitudinal lines with 5 light and 4 dark lines. The pattern can be very indistinct or absent. The snake has dark elongated spots on the top of its head, on the forehead shield, the over-eye shields and on the neck. From the nostril a dark stripe over the eyes extends to the throat. The shields of the upper and lower lips are darkly spotted. The ventral side is blue to light gray or reddish with dark dots and one or two dark lines. The body scales are smooth, so the body looks smooth and shiny.
The head is long and narrow and set off from the body. The large eyes have a round pupil . The forehead shield is very long, the rein shield , which is also long, lies in front of a forehead shield and therefore does not hit the front edge of the eyes. In addition, the snake has two, rarely three, hind eye shields and nine, more rarely eight or ten, upper lip shields, of which the 5th and 6th, more rarely the 4th and 5th, touch the lower edge of the eye. There are 17 to 19 rows of scales around the middle of the body.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area extends from North Africa with Libya and Egypt over the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East to Pakistan , southern Turkmenistan and northwestern India . A number of subspecies with different distribution areas are recognized.
As a habitat, the animals colonize desert areas with sparse vegetation, especially sandy deserts , wadis and areas around oases .
Way of life
Forskal's sand snake is crepuscular and nocturnal and moves forward very quickly. During the day it mostly hides in abandoned rodent burrows. Their range of prey mainly includes lizards and, more rarely, smaller birds and nesting mice. She holds the captured animals in her jaws until the poison of her poisonous teeth, which are located in the back of the rows of teeth, acts and paralyzes or kills the prey.
The snake is egg-laying, the clutches probably consist of less than 30 eggs. The young snakes hatch in late summer and start actively searching for food after the first molt.
Snake venom
Sand snakes have a poison that is effective for their prey, which they can bring into a wound via the rear furrow teeth (opistoglyph). The snakes can also bite people if caught. However, the poison is relatively harmless to humans and is usually not used due to the poison teeth that are far back.
literature
- Ulrich Gruber: The snakes of Europe. Franckh'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1989; Pages 157–159. ISBN 3-440-05753-4 .
