Micrurus hemprichii explained

Micrurus hemprichii, commonly known as Hemprich's coral snake and the worm-eating coral snake, is a species of venomous coral snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to South America.

Etymology

The specific name, hemprichii, is in honor of German naturalist Wilhelm Friedrich Hemprich.^[1]

Habitat

Hemprich's coral snake occurs in forests at elevations below 1000m (3,000feet), including lower montane wet forest, gallery forest, and primary and secondary rain forest. It is a cryptic species living in leaf litter of the forest floor.

Diet

Hemprich's coral snake feeds heavily on velvet worms,^[2] but also on small snakes and amphisbaenids.

Geographic range

M. hemprichii is found in the upper Amazon Basin, Guiana Highlands, and upper Orinoco Basin in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana,Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized as being valid.

• Micrurus hemprichii hemprichii
• Micrurus hemprichii ortoni

Nota bene

A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Micrurus.

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ) .... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I-XXV. (Elaps hemprichii, p. 421).
• Freiberg M (1982). Snakes of South America. Hong Kong: T.F.H. Publications. 189 pp. . (Micrurus hemprichii, p. 115).
• Jan [G] (1858). "Plan d'une Iconographie descriptive des Ophidiens et Description sommaire de nouvelles espèces de Serpents ". Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée, Paris, 2e Série [Series 2] 10: 438-449, 514–527. (Elaps hemprichii, new species, pp. 523–524). (in French).
• Schmidt KP (1953). "Hemprich's Coral Snake Micrurus hemprichi [sic]". Fieldiana Zool. 34 (13): 165-170. (Micrurus hemprichi [sic] ortoni, new subspecies, pp. 166–168).

External links

• "Micrurus hemprichii " at Coral Snakes of the World. https://web.archive.org/web/20160405124918/http://www.coralsnake.net/micrurus/hemprichs-coral-snake.html

Notes and References

1. [species:Bo Beolens|Beolens, Bo]
2. Monge Nájera J, Barrientos Z, Aguilar F . Behavior of Epiperipatus biolleyi (Onychophora: Peripatidae) under laboratory conditions. Revista de Biología Tropical. 1993. 41. 3. 689–696.