You are here » home › advanced search › Micrurus surinamensis

Micrurus surinamensis (CUVIER, 1816)

iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Micrurus surinamensis?

Add your own observation of
Micrurus surinamensis »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Aquatic Coral Snake
Portuguese: Boichumbeguaçu, Cobra-Coral, Cobra-Coral-Aquática, Cobra-Coral-D’água, Cobra-Coral-de-Cabeça-Vermelha, Coral, Coral-Verdadeira 
SynonymElaps surinamensis CUVIER 1816: 84
Elaps surinamensis — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1224
Micrurus surinamensis — BEEBE 1919: 216
Micrurus surinamensis — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 219
Micrurus surinamensis surinamensis — DUELLMAN 1978: 262
Micrurus surinamensis surinamensis — GASC & RODRIGUES 1980
Micrurus surinamensis surinamensis — WELCH 1994: 89
Micrurus surinamensis — STARACE 1998: 367
Micrurus surinamensis — WHITHWORTH & BEIRNE 2011
Micrurus surinamensis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 454
Micrurus surinamensis — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019 
DistributionFrench Guiana, Guyana, Colombia (Amazon region), Ecuador, Peru, Brazil (Mato Grosso, Pará), Bolivia

Type locality: Suriname.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: MNHN-RA 3926, male from Suriname, probably collected by Levaillant(?); originally syntype, designated as lectotype by Schmidt (1952); paralectotype: MNHN-RA 3925 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Distinguished from other species of the genus by frontal scale narrower than supraoculars; only one supralabial (4th) contacting the eye; head flattened with nostrils and eyes directed upwards; process pseudocoronoid extremely developed; distinguished from M. nattereri by having 16–174 (instead of 180–19) ventrals in males and 169–187 (instead of 193–21) ventrals in females; supratemporals extending well beyond exoccipitals rather than reaching only the posterior portion of exoccipitals in M. nattereri; posterior portion of parietal bone with a conspicuous sharp projection which is blunter in M. nattereri (from PASSOS & FERNANDES 200).
 
CommentVenomous!

Subspecies: Micrurus surinamensis nattereri SCHMIDT 192 has been elevated to full species status.

Habitat: Micrurus surinamensis is aquatic

Publication date: Although often cited as Cuvier 1817, “Règne Animal” was published in late 1816 fide Roux 1976. 
Etymologynamed after its type locality and distribution. 
References
  • Ávila, R.W.; R.A. Kawashita-Ribeiro. 2011. Herpetofauna of São João da Barra Hydroelectric Plant, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Check List 7 (6): 750-755 - get paper here
  • Avila-Pires, Teresa C.S.; Kleiton R. Alves-Silva, Laís Barbosa, Fabrício S. Correa, Jorge F. A. Cosenza, Ana Paula V. Costa-Rodrigues, Aurea A. Cronemberger, Marinus S. Hoogmoed, Geraldo R. Lima-Filho, Adriano O. Maciel, Alexandre F. R. Missassi, Lyw 2018. Changes in Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Over Time in Parque Estadual do Utinga, a Protected Area Surrounded by Urbanization. Herpetology Notes 11: 499-512 - get paper here
  • Beebe, William 1919. Higher vertebrates of British Guiana, with special reference to the fauna of Bartica District. Zoologica 2 (7): 205-238 - get paper here
  • BERNARDE, P.S., ALBUQUERQUE, S., BARROS, T.O. & TURCI, L.C.B. 2012. Serpentes do Estado de Rondônia, Brasil. Biota Neotropica 12 (3): 1-29 - get paper here
  • BERNARDE, Paulo Sérgio; Jáson de Oliveira GOMES 2012. Serpentes peçonhentas e ofidismo em Cruzeiro do Sul, Alto Juruá, Estado do Acre, Brasil. Acta Amazonica 42 (1): 65 - 72 - get paper here
  • Burger, W.L. 1955. A new subspecies of the coral snake Micrurus lemniscatus from Vénézuela, British Guiana and Trinidad, and a key for the identification of associated species of coral snakes. Bol. Mus. Cienc. Nat. Caracas 1: 35-40
  • Campbell, J.A. & Lamar, W.W. 1989. The Venomous Reptiles of Latin America. Comstock Publishing/Cornell University Press, Ithaca
  • CATENAZZI, A., LEHR, E. & VON MAY, R. 2013. The amphibians and reptiles of Manu National Park and its buffer zone, Amazon basin and eastern slopes of the Andes, Peru. Biota Neotropica 13 (4): 269-283
  • Claessen, H. 2005. De slangen van de Guyana’s, deel IX. Lacerta 63 (6): 228-241 - get paper here
  • Cole, Charles J.; Carol R. Townsend, Robert P. Reynolds, Ross D. MacCulloch, and Amy Lathrop 2013. Amphibians and reptiles of Guyana, South America: illustrated keys, annotated species accounts, and a biogeographic synopsis. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 125 (4): 317-578; plates: 580-620 - get paper here
  • Crnobrna B, Santa-Cruz Farfan R, Gallegos C, López-Rojas JJ, Llanqui IB, Pisco GP, Arbaiza AK 2023. Herpetological records from the Abujao basin, central Peruvian Amazon. Check List 19(4): 433-465 - get paper here
  • Cuvier, G. 1816. Le règne animal distribué d’après son organisation, pour servir de base a l’historire naturelle des animaux et d’introduction a l’anatomie comparée. Vol. 2. Les reptiles, les poissons, les mollusques et les annélides. Déterville, Paris [often cited as 1817 but see Roux 1976: 31] - get paper here
  • Dávila, Pedro Henrique Bertáo, Hideki Sadadi Takahashi and Miguel Heyd Oshiro Barbosa. 2014. Micrurus surinamensis (aquatic coralsnake) behavior. Herpetological Review 45 (2): 340 - get paper here
  • Duellman, W. E. 1978. The biology of an equatorial herpetofauna in Amazonian Ecuador. Misc. Publ. Univ. Kans. Mus. Nat. Hist. 65: 1-352 - get paper here
  • Duellman, W. E. 2005. Cusco Amazónico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainforest. Comstock Pub Assoc.
  • Duellman, W.E., & Salas, A.W. 1991. Annotated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Cuzco Amazonico, Peru. Occas. Papers Mus. of Natur. Hist., Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence (143): 13 pp. - get paper here
  • Feitosa, Darlan T., Paulo P. Passos and Ana Lúcia Prudente. 2007. Taxonomic status and geographic variation of the slender coralsnake Micrurus filiformis (Günther, 1859) (Serpentes, Elapidae). South American J. Herp. 2 (3): 149-156
  • Fonseca, Wirven Lima da; Julivaldo Dantas da Silva, Arthur Diesel Abegg, Conrado Mario da Rosa, Paulo Sergio Bernarde 2019. Herpetofauna of Porto Walter and surrounding areas, Southwest Amazonia, Brazil. Herpetology Notes 12: 91-107 - get paper here
  • Fraga R de, Stow AJ, Magnusson WE, Lima AP 2014. The Costs of Evaluating Species Densities and Composition of Snakes to Assess Development Impacts in Amazonia. PLoS One 9 (8): e105453. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105453 - get paper here
  • Fraga, R., Lima, A. P., Prudente, A. L. C., & Magnusson, W. E. 2013. Guia de cobras da região de Manaus – Amazônia Central. Manaus: INPA - get paper here
  • Gasc & Rodrigues 1980. Liste preliminaire des Serpents de la Guyane francaise. Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. Paris 2 (4): 559-598
  • Gonzalez R. C. et al. 2020. Lista dos Nomes Populares dos Répteis no Brasil – Primeira Versão. Herpetologia Brasileira 9 (2): 121 – 214 - get paper here
  • Gower, D.; Garrett, K. & Stafford, P. 2012. Snakes. Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY,<br />144 p..
  • Harvey M. B., J. Aparicio E, and L. Gonzalez A. 2003. Revision of the venomous snakes of Bolivia: Part 1. The coralsnakes (Elapidae: Micrurus). Annals of the Carnegie Museum 72: 1-52 - get paper here
  • KOK, P. J. R., ROZE, J. A., LENGLET, G. L., SAMBHU, H. & ARJOON, D. 2003. Micrurus isozonus (Cope, 1860) (Serpentes, Elapidae): an addition to the herpetofauna of Guyana, with comments on other species of coral snakes from Guyana. Bulletin de l’Institut Royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Biologie, 73 : 75-82 - get paper here
  • Kornacker,P.M. 1999. Checklist and key to the snakes of Venezuela. PaKo-Verlag, Rheinbach, Germany, 270 pp.
  • Lancini,A.R. & Kornacker,P.M. 1989. Die Schlangen von Venezuela. Armitano Editores C.A., Caracas, 1-381
  • Mans, D. R., Djotaroeno, M., Pawirodihardjo, J., & Friperson, P. 2021. Exploring the global animal biodiversity in the search for new drugs-Reptiles. Journal of Translational Science - get paper here
  • May, Rudolf von; Louise H. Emmons, Guillermo Knell, Jennifer M. Jacobs, Lily O. Rodríguez 2006. REPTILES del Centro Río Los Amigos, Manu y Tambopata, Perú. Field Museum, Web Version - get paper here
  • Morais, D.H.; R.W. Ávila; R.A. Kawashita-Ribeiro; M.A. Carvalho. 2011. Squamata, Elapidae, Micrurus surinamensis (Cuvier, 1817): New records and distribution map in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, with notes on diet and activity period. Check List 7 (3): 350-351 - get paper here
  • Morato, S.A.A.; Calixto, P.O.; Mendes, L.R.; Gomes, R.; Galatti, U.; Trein, F.L.; Oliveira, F.S.; Ferreira, G.N. 2014. Guia fotográfico de identificação da herpetofauna da Floresta Nacional de Saracá-Taquera, Estado do Pará. Curitiba: STCP Engenharia de Projetos Ltda.; Porto Trombetas: MRN – Mineração Rio do Norte S.A.; 213 p. - get paper here
  • Morato, Sérgio Augusto Abrahão; Guilherme Nunes Ferreira; Michela Rossane Cavilha Scupino (eds.) 2018. Herpetofauna da Amazônia Central: Estudos na FLONA de Saracá-Taquera. Curitiba, Pr: STCP Engenharia de Projetos Ltda.; Porto Trombetas, Pa: MRN – Mineração Rio do Norte S.A., 2018.<br />210p. - get paper here
  • Moravec J., Aparicio J. 2005. Notes on the herpetofauna of Bioceanica and Bolpebra (Provincia Nicolas Suaréz, Departamento Pando, Biolivia). Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 174 (1-4): 95-113
  • Nogueira, Cristiano C.; Antonio J.S. Argôlo, Vanesa Arzamendia, Josué A. Azevedo, Fausto E. Barbo, Renato S. Bérnils, Bruna E. Bolochio, Marcio Borges-Martins, Marcela Brasil-Godinho, Henrique Braz, Marcus A. Buononato, Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, 2019. Atlas of Brazilian snakes: verified point-locality maps to mitigate the Wallacean shortfall in a megadiverse snake fauna. South American J. Herp. 14 (Special Issue 1):1-274 - get paper here
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • Passos, P.; Fernandes, D.S. 2005. Variation and taxonomic status of the aquatic coral snake Micrurus surinamensis (Cuvier, 1817) (Serpentes: Elapidae). Zootaxa 953: 1-14 - get paper here
  • Pérez-Santos,C. & Moreno, A.G. 1988. Ofidios de Colombia. Museo reegionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Monographie VI, 517 pp.
  • Pessoa, Anita de Moura; Mariana Pires de Campos Telles, Cintia Pelegrineti Targueta, Steven Douglas Aird & Nelson Jorge da Silva 2021. Development and Cross-Amplification of Microsatellite Markers for Micrurus surinamensis (Elapidae). Journal of Herpetology 55 (1): 33-37 - get paper here
  • Peters, James A.; Donoso-Barros, Roberto & Orejas-Miranda, Braulio 1970. Catalogue of the Neotropical Squamata: Part I Snakes. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 297: 347 pp. - get paper here
  • Pinto, Roberta Richard, Marcelo Gomes and Ronald Carvalho, Jr. 2011. Micrurus surinamensis (aquatic coralsnake) ophiophagy. Herpetological Review 42 (3): 441 - get paper here
  • Rabosky, Daniel L.; Rudolf von May, Michael C. Grundler and Alison R. Davis Rabosky 2019. The Western Amazonian Richness Gradient for Squamate Reptiles: Are There Really Fewer Snakes and Lizards in Southwestern Amazonian Lowlands? Diversity 11: 199; doi:10.3390/d11100199 - get paper here
  • Rincón-Aranguri, M., Toro-Cardona, F. A., Galeano, S. P., Roa-Fuentes, L.. & Urbina-Cardona, N. 2023. Functional diversity of snakes is explained by the landscape composition at multiple areas of influence. Ecology and Evolution, 13, e10352 - get paper here
  • RIVAS, GILSON A.; CÉSAR R. MOLINA, GABRIEL N. UGUETO, TITO R. BARROS, CÉSAR L. BAR- RIO-AMORÓS & PHILIPPE J. R. KOK 2012. Reptiles of Venezuela: an updated and commented checklist. Zootaxa 3211: 1–64 - get paper here
  • Roux, C. 1976. On the dating of the first edition of Cuvier’s Règne Animal. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 8 (1): 31 - get paper here
  • Roux-Estève, R. 1982. Les spécimens-types du genre Micrurus (Elapidae) conservés au Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle de Paris. Mém. Inst. Butantan, 46: 79-94. - get paper here
  • Santos, Marina Meireles dos; Robson Waldemar Ávila and Ricardo Alexandre Kawashita-Ribeiro. 2011. Checklist of the amphibians and reptiles in Nobres municipality, Mato Grosso state, central Brazil. Herpetology Notes 4: 55-461 - get paper here
  • Santos-Costa, Maria Cristina dos; Gleomar Fabiano Maschio, Ana Lúcia da Costa Prudente 2015. Natural history of snakes from Floresta Nacional de Caxiuanã, eastern Amazonia, Brazil. Herpetology Notes 8: 69-98 - get paper here
  • Schmidt, K. P. 1952. The Surinam coral snake, Micrurus surinamensis. Fieldiana: Zoology 34 (4): 25-34 - get paper here
  • Schmidt, Karl P. 1936. Preliminary account of coral snakes of South America. Zoological Series of Field Museum of Natural History 20 (19): 189-203 - get paper here
  • Schmidt, Karl P. 1955. Coral snakes of the genus Micrurus in Colombia. Fieldiana Zoology 34 (34): 337-359 - get paper here
  • Schmidt, Karl P. & Walker, Warren F. 1943. Peruvian snakes from the University of Arequipa. Zoological Series of Field Museum of Zoology 24 (26): 279-296 - get paper here
  • Silva FM, Prudente ALC, Machado FA, Santos MM, Zaher H, Hingst-Zaher E. 2017. Aquatic adaptations in a Neotropical coral snake: A study of morphological convergence. J Zool Syst Evol Res. 2017;00:1–13 - get paper here
  • Silva Jr, Nelson Jorge da; Marcus Augusto Buononato & Darlan Tavares Feitosa 2016. AS COBRAS-CORAIS DO NOVO MUNDO. In: Silva (ed) Cobras corais do Brasil. Goiânia, pp. 41-69
  • Silva, F.M.; A.C. Menks; A.L.C. Prudente; J.C.L. Costa; A.E.M. Travassos; U. Galatti. 2011. Squamate Reptiles from municipality of Barcarena and surroundings, state of Pará, north of Brazil. Check List 7 (3): 220-226 - get paper here
  • Silva, M.C. da, R.H. de Oliveira, D.H. Morais, R.A. Kawashita-Ribeiro, E.S. de Brito & R.W. Ávila 2015. Amphibians and reptiles of a Cerrado area in Primavera do Leste Municipality, Mato Grosso State, Central Brazil. Salamandra 51 (2): 187-194 - get paper here
  • Starace, Fausto 1998. Guide des Serpents et Amphisbènes de Guyane. IBIS Rouge Editions, Guadeloupe, Guyane, 450 pp.
  • Starace, Fausto 2013. Guide des Serpents et Amphisbènes de Guyane. Ibis Rouge Editions, Matoury, Guyane, ISBN 978-2-84450-407-4 - get paper here
  • Strussman,C. & de Carvalho,M.A. 1998. New herpetological records for the state of Mato Grosso, western Brazil. Herpetological Review 29 (3): 183-185 - get paper here
  • Tavares-Pinheiro, Rodrigo; Fernanda Souza Melo, Vinícius Antônio Matins Barbosa de Figueiredo, Patrick Ribeiro Sanches, Jéssica Stefany Costa Anaissi, Maria Madalena Salviano Santana, Aline Emanuelle Oliveira-Souza, Tamylles dos Santos Reis, Gabriel 2021. “In living color”: predation by the coralsnake Micrurus surinamensis (Cuvier, 1816) (Serpentes: Elapidae) on a knifefish in the eastern Amazon, Brazil. Herpetology Notes 14: 755-758 - get paper here
  • Torres-Carvajal O, Pazmiño-Otamendi G, Salazar-Valenzuela D. 2019. Reptiles of Ecuador: a resource-rich portal, with a dynamic checklist and photographic guides. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 13 (1): [General Section]: 209–229 (e178) - get paper here
  • Valencia, J. H., K. Garzón-Tello & M. E. Barragán-Paladines 2016. Serpientes venenosas del Ecuador: sistemática, taxonomía, historia natural, conservación, envenenamiento y aspectos antropológicos. Quito, Ecuador, Fundación Herpetológica Gustavo Orcés, Universidad de Texas, Fondo Ambiental Nacional, 652 pp. [review in HR 49 (1): 152, 2018]
  • Vaz-Silva, W.; RM Oliveira, AFN Gonzaga, KC Pinto, FC Poli, TM Bilce, M Penhacek, L Wronski, JX Martins, TG Junqueira, LCC, Cesca VY, Guimarães RD. Pinheiro 2015. Contributions to the knowledge of amphibians and reptiles from Volta Grande do Xingu, northern Brazil Braz. J. Biol., 75 (3) (suppl.): S205-S218 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Whithworth, A. & Beirne, C. 2011. Reptiles of the Yachana Reserve. Global Vision International, 130 pp. - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator