edgepedia

Snakes

139 articles

Smooth green snake

Smooth green snake (Opheodrys vernalis), also called smooth greensnake or grass snake: a small bright-green North American colubrid with 15 smooth scale rows, an insect-only diet, temperature-dependent sex determination, and Least Concern status.

Snake

Snake (Serpentes): limbless squamate reptile, over 4,000 species on every continent except Antarctica; moves by four locomotion modes using belly scales, dates to Triassic squamate origins, causes 138,000 snakebite deaths yearly, with over 30% of Viperidae and Elapidae threatened.

Snake fungal disease

Snake fungal disease (ophidiomycosis), caused by the fungus Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, is a skin infection of snakes with crusty lesions; long present in North America and Europe, usually mild in wild snakes.

Southern black racer

Southern black racer (Coluber constrictor priapus), a non-venomous subspecies of the North American racer; glossy black with white chin, diurnal and fast, ranging from North Carolina to eastern Texas, diet heavy in lizards and snakes.

Spitting cobra

Spitting cobras, Naja spp. and the rinkhals Hemachatus haemachatus, eject venom at enemies' eyes up to about 2.5 m; spitting evolved three times independently with raised PLA2 venom abundance.

Sumatranus

Sumatranus, also called the Sumatran Mud Snake genus (Sumatranus albomaculata), is a monotypic homalopsid water-snake genus described by Murphy and Voris in 2014, known from Nias and Simeulue islands off western Sumatra and classified as Data Deficient.

Taipan

The taipan (Oxyuranus) is a genus of three large, fast-moving, highly venomous Australian snakes: the inland taipan, the coastal taipan, and the western desert taipan, described in 2007.

Tantilla

Tantilla, black-headed, crowned, and flat-headed snakes (Baird & Girard 1853), a New World colubrid genus of about 67-70 tiny rear-fanged, semi-fossorial species that eat centipedes, scorpions, and spiders using neurotoxic Duvernoy's gland venom, harmless to humans.

Tiger snake

Tiger snake (Notechis scutatus), a highly venomous Australian elapid of the south and southeast, formerly split as N. ater; known for insular dwarf and giant populations, Least Concern status, and coagulopathic neurotoxic envenoming treated with tiger snake antivenom.

Timber rattlesnake

Timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), also called canebrake rattlesnake, a large venomous pit viper of eastern and central US forests, 90-152 cm, communal dens, IUCN Least Concern but threatened in many states, extirpated in Canada since 1941.

Trimeresurus

Trimeresurus (Lacépède, 1804), Asian lancehead or bamboo pitvipers, habus: a genus of venomous pit vipers (Viperidae, Crotalinae) across southeast Asia, with over 61 species, a history of taxonomic splitting, and haemorrhagic, fibrinogen-cleaving venom.

Typhlopidae

Typhlopidae, the typical blindsnakes, are fossorial snakes on all continents except Antarctica, about 250 species in four subfamilies, feeding on ants and termites by rapid maxillary raking.

Typhlops

Typhlops (blind snakes, blindsnakes) is a genus of small worm-like burrowing snakes in the family Typhlopidae, type species Typhlops lumbricalis, now restricted mainly to western Caribbean islands such as Cuba, Hispaniola, and The Bahamas.

Vasuki indicus

Vasuki indicus, also written Vāsuki, is an extinct madtsoiid snake described in 2024 from 27 vertebrae found in Kutch, Gujarat, India, dating to about 47 million years ago; at an estimated 10.9–15.2 m it is the largest known madtsoiid, rivaling Titanoboa.

Venomous snake

Venomous snakes, about 600 species including elapids and vipers, inject toxin mixtures via fangs; their bites cause 81,000–138,000 deaths yearly, treated mainly with animal-derived antivenom.

Viper

Viper (family Viperidae): venomous snakes with long, hinged, hollow front fangs (solenoglyphous). Subfamilies Viperinae, Crotalinae, Causinae, Azemiopinae; hemotoxic venom; worldwide except Australia and Madagascar.

Vipera

Vipera (true vipers, adders) is a genus of venomous Eurasian Viperinae snakes erected by Laurenti in 1768, holding about two dozen species including V. berus, V. aspis, and V. ammodytes, distinct from the split-off genera Daboia, Macrovipera, and Montivipera.

Western diamondback rattlesnake

Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox, coon-tail), a large venomous pit viper of the southwestern US and Mexico; diamond markings, black-and-white banded tail, leading US snakebite fatality source, NatureServe G5.

Zamenis

Zamenis (Wagler, 1830) is a genus of six non-venomous Palaearctic ratsnake species, including the Aesculapian snake Z. longissimus, formerly placed in Elaphe and split from Rhinechis by molecular phylogenetics.