Mock cobras
| Mock cobras | ||||||||||||
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Shield-nosed cobra ( Aspidelaps scutatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aspidelaps | ||||||||||||
| Fitzinger , 1843 |
The aspidelaps or shield (noses) cobra ( Aspidelaps ) are a genus of Venomari (Elapidae) provided with two types found in Southern Africa. Their poison mainly acts as a neurotoxin, but human deaths are rare due to the small amount of poison released.
Features and way of life
Mock cobras are small snakes no longer than 80 centimeters in length. The head is barely separated from the neck, the shield is wide, the pupil in the moderately large eye is round. They are nocturnal and prefer dry, sandy terrain as their habitat. Small mammals, amphibians, lizards and snakes serve as prey. When threatened, they straighten up like a cobra , inflate the neck ( A. lubricus ) or flatten it ( A. scutatus ), hiss and usually strike with their mouths closed. The females lay eggs.
Systematics
The genus includes two types :
- The South African coral snake ( Aspidelaps lubricus ) with two or three subspecies ( A. l. Lubricus and A. l. Cowlesi and A. l. Infuscatus , the latter possibly identical to A. l. Cowlesi )
- The shield-nosed cobra ( Aspidelaps scutatus ) with three subspecies ( A. s. Scutauts , A. s. Intermedius and A. s. Fulafula ).
swell
- Trutnau, L. Giftschlangen Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (1998) ISBN 3-8001-7371-9
- Mattison, C. The Snakes Encyclopedia , BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich, 1999 ISBN 3-405-15497-9
