Aspidelaps

Shield nose cobra ( Aspidelaps scutatus )

The apparent cobras or shield ( noses ) cobra ( Aspidelaps ) are a genus of poisonous snakes ( Elapidae ), which occurs with two species in southern Africa. Their venom primarily acts as a neurotoxin, due to the small amount of venom delivered but deaths are rare in humans.

Characteristics and lifestyle

Note cobras are small snakes exceeding 80 centimeters in length. The head is barely separated from the neck, the nose shield is broad, the pupil round in moderately large eye. They are nocturnal and prefer a habitat of dry, sandy terrain. When prey are small mammals, amphibians, lizards and snakes. When threatened, they straighten up like a cobra and inflate the neck (A. lubricus ) or flat from him (A. scutatus ), hiss and come across most with closed mouth to. The females lay eggs.

System

The genus includes two species:

• 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 with A. l cowlesi )
• The shield nose cobra ( Aspidelaps scutatus ) with three subspecies ( A. s scutauts, A. s intermedius and A. s fulafula ).

Swell

• Trutnau, L. poisonous snakes Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart ( 1998) ISBN 3-8001-7371-9
• Mattison, C. The Encyclopedia snakes, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, München, 1999 ISBN 3-405-15497-9