Schmidt's arrow snake
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Schmidt's arrow snake ( Dolichophis schmidti ) |
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| Dolichophis schmidti | ||||||||||||
| ( Nikolsky , 1909) |
Schmidt's arrow snake ( Dolichophis schmidti ) is a non-poisonous snake from the adder family , more precisely the land and tree snakes . It occurs in the Middle East and resembles its closest relative, the Balkan jumping snake ( Dolichophis caspius ). It is also called the red jumping snake , former scientific names are Hierophis schmidti and Coluber schmidti .
features
Schmidt's arrow snake reaches a body length of about 130 centimeters. The head of the relatively slender snake is clearly separated from the body, the pupils are - typical of snakes - round. Schmidt's arrow snake is red-brown to brick-red in color, but the color varies with the age of the snake. Males have a gray-brown color on the abdomen. It can be distinguished from the other species of the genus primarily by the color of the back scales: the middle of the scales is colored, while the upper and lower edges are light. This results in fine stripes along the body.
As with all adders of the genera Dolichophis and Hierophis , the hemipenis is bulbous.
The scales are not keeled. Most Schmidt's arrow snakes have 19 rows of dorsal scales around the middle of their bodies . 17 rows of back scales begin behind the head, at the beginning of the tail there are still 15. A small proportion of the animals - in Georgia it is less than six percent - only have 17 rows of back scales in the middle of the body. Abdominal scales ( scutum ventrale ) are 187–212, followed by the anal shield , which can be divided or in one piece, followed by 83–114 scales on the underside of the tail ( scutum subcaudale ).
When viewed from above, Schmidt's arrow snake has the large head shields typical of snakes, which are symmetrically arranged. In the side view, Schmidt's arrow snake has eight, rarely seven or nine, upper lip scales . Of these, the fourth and fifth, counted from the front, border the eye. In front of the eye there is one, rarely two scales (pre- oculars ). As with all snakes of the genera Hierophis and Dolichophis, there is a small presubocular between the pre-oculars and the supralabials. Between the pre-oculars and the scales that border the nostril ( nasalia ) there is a bridle shield ( loreal ). Of the nine or eleven lower lip shields, the front five border the front chin shield.
distribution
The population occurs in the northern part of the Middle East from sea level up to 2000 meters above sea level. Most of the range begins in the middle of Turkey and extends over northern Iran to southwest Turkmenistan , over Armenia and Azerbaijan around the Caspian Sea . Schmidt's arrow snake also inhabits a small part of Georgia and Russia . The species is particularly common in the south of the range. A smaller habitat is in Idlib in northwest Syria .
The population in northwest Jordan is a relic from postglacial times. Schmidt's arrow snake lives here in mountainous areas far removed from the rest of the habitat in the southern Jebel ad-Duruz , where the environmental conditions still correspond to those in postglacial times.
The adder lives sympathetically with Ravergier's angry snake and the two other sister species of the genus Dolichophis .
Way of life
Schmidt's arrow snake uses a wide variety of habitats in deserts, semi-deserts and scree slopes on mountain slopes and river banks, but can also live in cultural landscapes and settlements. The exclusively diurnal snake hunts small mammals, birds, amphibians, insects and other reptiles and is often found in larger rodent populations. An air temperature of 25 to 30 ° C in summer and 20 ° C in autumn is considered ideal. The female lays between seven and eleven eggs, but there can be up to 20.
Systematics
Until genetic analyzes had shown otherwise, Schmidt's arrow snake, like many other larger snakes that specialize in hunting for nimble prey such as lizards, was placed in the genus of the angry snake ( Coluber ). After it had been shown that the species of the genus Coluber did not have a common ancestral form, the species of the ancient world were moved to the genera Dolichophis , Hierophis , Hemerophis , Hemorrhois and Platyceps , among others . Like many other genera in the Colubridae family, the Dolichophis systematics is still under discussion and is the subject of current research.
The following cladogram shows the relationships between the genus Dolichophis according to Baker et al.
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Hazard and protection
Schmidt arrow snake is on the red list of the IUCN classified as uncritical ( "Least Concern", LC). The population is stable, but wild animals are caught for trade. In Germany it is particularly protected by the Federal Nature Conservation Act. It is therefore forbidden, among other things, to chase her, to catch her, to injure or to kill her.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dolichophis schmidti in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 7, 2011.
- ↑ a b c d e Mohammad Abu Baker, Lina Rifai, Ulrich Joger, Zoltan T. Nagy, Michael Wink, Zuhair Amr: Occurrence of Coluber (Hierophis) schmidti Nikolsky, 1909 in Jordan (Squamata: Serpentes: Colubridae) . In: Herpetozoa . tape June 15 , 2002, ISSN 1013-4425 , pp. 29–36 ( uni-heidelberg.de [PDF]).
- ↑ 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 .
- ↑ a b c Varol Tok, Ishmail Ugurtas, Murat Sevinç, Wolfgang Böhme, Pierre-André Crochet, Uğur Kaya, Göran Nilson, Boris Turiyev: Dolichophis schmidti . In: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Version 2010.2, 2008 ( iucnredlist.org [accessed August 18, 2010]).
- ↑ Ahmad M. Disi: A contribution to the knowledge of the herpetofauna of Jordan. VI. The Jordanian herpetofauna as a zoogeography indicator . In: Herpetozoa . tape June 9 , 1996, ISSN 1013-4425 , pp. 71–81 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- ↑ ZT 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 ( uni-heidelberg.de [PDF; 200 kB ]). uni-heidelberg.de ( 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.
- ↑ Scientific Information System for International Species Protection (WISIA): Taxon Information . As of July 2009.
Web links
- Dolichophis schmidti in The Reptile Database
- Map of the distribution area on iucnredlist.org