Micrurus spixii WAGLER, 1824
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Micrurus spixii
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| Higher Taxa | Elapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Amazon(ian) Coral Snake Portuguese: Boichumbeguaçu, Chumbeguaça, Chumbeguaçu, Cobra-Coral, Cobra-Coral-de-Pescoço-Amarelo, Cobra-Coral-Vermelha, Coral, Coral-Verdadeira |
| Synonym | Micrurus spixii WAGLER 1824: 48 Elaps Marcgravii — FITZINGER 1826:901 Elaps corallinus — SCHLEGEL 1837 (in part) Elaps spixii BOULENGER 1896 Elaps ehrhardti MÜLLER 1926: 198 Elaps ehrhardti MÜLLER 1926:198 Micrurus spixii spixii — SCHMIDT & WALKER 1943: 294 Micrurus spixiii martiusi SCHMIDT 1953: 175 Micrurus spixii spixii — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 217 Micrurus spixii spixii — WELCH 1994: 89 Micrurus spixii — KORNACKER 1999: 159 Micrurus spixii spixii — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 2004: 228 Micrurus spixii martiusi — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 2004: 228 Micrurus spixiii martiusi — FROTA et al. 2005 Micrurus spixiii martiusi — FEITOSA et al. 2007 Micrurus spixii — GOWER et al. 2012: 94 Micrurus spixii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 454 Micrurus spixii — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 |
| Distribution | Brazil (Amazonas, Para, Tocantins, Mato Grosso), S Venezuela, S Colombia, NW Bolivia, Ecuador spixii: Brazil (Amazonas), S Venezuela martiusi: Brazil (lower Amazon of Para, NE Mato Grosso); Type locality: Santarem, Pard, Brazil. Type locality: “Habitat rarus ad flumen Solimöens” [Brazil, Rio Solimões] according to the original description and Vanzolini (1981) |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: ZSM 209/0, male, collected by Spix and Martius expedition to Brazil, 1817-1820; cited erroneously as ZMH 209/1 by Nascimento et al. 2019. Holotype: MCZ 2612, male [martiusi] Holotype: ZSM 203/1925 (incorrectly given as ZSM 140/1925 in the original description), male, “Manacapurú am Solimoëns, Brasilien”, collected by W. Ehrhardt, 08.06.1925 [ehrhardti] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: (1) Dorsal pattern of yellow, red, and black triads; (2) hemipenis and tail relatively short; (3) two supralabials entering orbit; (4) mental usually separated from chinshields by medial contact of first pair of infralabials; (5) anal scale usually divided; (6) first triad incomplete: one black ring on neck, its anterior margin nearly vertical; (7) dorsal scales of head (including parietals) black with light edges; (8) scales in yellow rings with heavier black apices than scales in red rings; (9) black rings about as long dorsally as ventrally, complete except for black ring straddling the vent; (10) mental usually immaculate, some black edging of more posterior scales on underside of head; (11) 5.33-7.67 (4-9 in specimens from outside Bolivia, Roze, 1996) triads on body and 0.67-1.33 triad on tail [HARVEY et al. 2003]. |
| Comment | Type species: Micrurus spixii WAGLER 1824 is the type species of the genus Micrurus WAGLER in SPIX 1824. See also ICZN opinion 1201. Morphological and biochemical evidence for the separation of Micruroides and Micrurus was presented by SLOWINSKI (1995). See also Silva et al. 2016: 54. Synonymy mainly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970 and HARVEY et al. 2003. HARVEY et al. 2003 considered spixii and obscurus as separate species. However, Campbell & Lamar 2004 rejected the differences between the populations as insufficient to be different species and treated spixii and obscurus as synonyms. Kaiser et al. 2013 rejected the (sub-) generic names Binghamus Hoser 2012, Hoserelapidea Hoser 2012, Hoserelapidea Hoser 2012, Troianous Hoser 2012 invalid and rejected their use instead of Micrurus. Harvey et al. 2003 synonymized M. s. martiusii with M. spixii based on wide overlap of meristic and morphometric characters, which was confirmed by Nascimento et al. 2019. Distribution: not in Peru (fide T. DOAN, pers. comm., 4 June 2012). Not in Venezuela (Luis Esqueda, pers. comm., 21 April 2016, Natera-Mumaw et al. 2015 say it is M. obscurus which is in Venezuela but not spixii); See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. Venomous! Subspecies: Micrurus spixii obscurus (JAN 1872) has been elevated to full species status (but see Synonymy). Micrurus spixii princeps (BOULENGER 1905) is now considered as a synonym of M. obscurus. Mimicry: this species is mimiced by Simophis rhinostoma. |
| Etymology | Named after Johann Baptist von Spix (1781-1826), German zoologist. See Heinzeller (2006) and the Spixiana Supplement 1983 for detailed biographical data. The generic name is derived from the Greek words micro, meaning "little or short" and oura, meaning "tail," in reference to the relatively short tail in members of this genus. |
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