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Naja pallida BOULENGER, 1896

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Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: African Cobra, Red Spitting Cobra
G: Rote Speikobra 
SynonymNaja nigricollis var. pallida BOULENGER 1896: 379
Naja nigricollis pallida — BOGERT 1942
Naja nigricollis pallida — LOVERIDGE 1957
Naja mossambica pallida — BROADLEY 1968
Naja mossambica pallida — HARDING & WELCH 1980
Naja mossambica pallida — TRUTNAU 1984
Naja pallida HUGHES — 1983
Naja pallida — GOLAY 1985: 47
Naja pallida — WELCH 1994: 93
Naja (Afronaja) pallida — WALLACH et al. 2009
Afronaja pallida — WALLACH et al. 2014: 11
Naja pallida — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 558 
DistributionEthiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Republic of South Sudan (RSS)

Type locality: Inland from Berbera, Somalia (restricted by Bogert 1940).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH (presumed, status unclear fide P. Campbell, pers. comm., March 2019). 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (951 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Distribution: not in Egypt, Chad, and very likely not in Eritrea or Sudan. Older records of N. pallida from those countries refer to Naja nubiae, which was split off N. pallida by Wüster & Broadley 2003 (W. Wüster, pers. comm., 21 July 2019). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “pallidus” = pale or yellow(ish). 
References
  • Attmarsson, E. 2004. Naja pallida, captive care and reproduction of the Red Spitting Cobra. Reptilia (GB) (33): 72-76 - get paper here
  • Bogert, Charles M. 1942. Snakes secured by the Snyder East African Expedition in Kenya Colony and Tanganyika Territory. American Museum Novitates (1178): 1-5 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1896. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum, Vol. 3. London (Taylor & Francis), xiv + 727 pp. - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1968. A review of the African cobras of the genus Naja (Serpentes: Elapinae). Arnoldia (Rhodesia) (ser. 3) 29: 1-14
  • Dobiey, M. & Vogel, G. 2007. Venomous Snakes of Africa - Giftschlangen Afrikas. Edition Chimaira, Terralog 15, 150 pp. - get paper here
  • Gower, D.; Garrett, K. & Stafford, P. 2012. Snakes. Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY,<br>144 p..
  • Hörold, Ralf 2019. Die echten Kobras und ihre Gifte Ophidia 13 (1): 18-26
  • Hughes, B. & Barry,D.H. 1969. The snakes of Ghana: a checklist and key. Bull. Inst. Franc. Afrique Noire A, 31: 1004-1041
  • Kirchhof S, Wasonga V, Mazuch T, Spawls S, Malonza KP. 2023. An annotated checklist of the herpetofauna of the Sibiloi National Park in northern Kenya based on field surveys. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 17(1/2) [General Section]: 1–18 (e324) - get paper here
  • Laita, Mark 2013. Serpentine. Abrams and PQ Blackwell, Auckland, New Zealand, 200 unnumbered pages
  • Lanza, B. 1990. Amphibians and reptiles of the Somali Democratic Republic: check list and biogeography. Biogeographia, 14: 407-465 [1988] - get paper here
  • Largen, M.J.; Spawls, S. 2010. Amphibians and Reptiles of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 694 pp.
  • Largen,M.J. & Rasmussen,J.B. 1993. Catalogue of the snakes of Ethiopia (Reptilia Serpentes), including identification keys. Tropical Zoology 6: 313-434 - get paper here
  • Louw, A.D. 1994. Reproduction of the Eastern Pallid Spitting Cobra, Naja pallida in Captivity. African Herp News (21): 12-13 - get paper here
  • Monzel, Markus M 2012. Gifte, Gifttiere, Menschen – eine Geschichte voller (Miss)Verständnisse. Draco 13 (51): 4-25 - get paper here
  • Osman, H.E.S.I., & Sir, N.T.E. 1988. The snakes of the Sudan. 1. The snakes of Khartoum Province. The Snake 20 (1): 74-79.
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • Post, Yorick; Jens Puschhof, Joep Beumer, Harald M. Kerkkamp, Merijn A.G. de Bakker, Julien Slagboom, Buys de Barbanson, Nienke R. Wevers, Xandor M. Spijkers, Thomas Olivier,<br>Taline D. Kazandjian, Stuart Ainsworth, Carmen Lopez Iglesias, Willine J 2020. Snake Venom Gland Organoids. Cell 180, 233–247 - get paper here
  • Rössel, D. 2010. Gefährliche Tiere in Berlin ... Reptilia (Münster) 15 (82): 3,6 - get paper here
  • Rudolphi, O. S. 2015. Der Rubin der Giftschlangenhaltung. Die Rote Speikobra, Naja pallida, als Pflegling im Terrarium. Reptilia (Münster) 20 (113): 58-64 - get paper here
  • Spawls, S., Branch, B. 1995. The Dangerous Snakes of Africa. Blandford, London, 192 pp.
  • Spawls, S.; Howell, K.; Drewes, R.C. & Ashe, J. 2002. A field guide to the reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, 543 pp. [reviews in HR 34: 396 and Afr. J. Herp. 51; 147] - get paper here
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch & Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - get paper here
  • Spawls, Steve; Kim Howell, Harald Hinkel, Michele Menegon 2018. Field Guide to East African Reptiles. Bloomsbury, 624 pp. - get paper here
  • Trutnau, L. 1984. Erfahrungen bei der Pflege und Nachzucht von zwei afrikanischen Naja-Arten: der Schwarzweißen Hutschlange Naja melanoleuca HALLOWELL 1857 und der Kapkobra Naja nivea (LINNAEUS 1758). Herpetofauna 6 (31): 15-26 - get paper here
  • Wallach, V.; Wüster, W. & Broadley, D.G. 2009. In praise of subgenera: taxonomic status of cobras of the genus Naja Laurenti (Serpentes: Elapidae). Zootaxa 2236: 26–36 - 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.
  • Winchell, S. 2011. Kobras. Reptilia (Münster) 16 (89): 16-22 - get paper here
  • Wüster, W. & Broadley, D.G. 2007. Get an eyeful of this: a new species of giant spitting cobra from eastern and north-eastern Africa (Squamata: Serpentes: Elapidae: Naja). Zootaxa 1532: 51–68 - get paper here
  • Wüster, Wolfgang; Steven Crookes, Ivan Ineich, Youssouph Mané, Catharine E. Pook, Jean-Francois Trape, Donald G. Broadley 2007. The phylogeny of cobras inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences: Evolution of venom spitting and the phylogeography of the African spitting cobras (Serpentes: Elapidae: Naja nigricollis complex). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 45: 437–453 - get paper here
  • Young, Bruce A.; Boetig, Melissa; Westhoff, Guido 2009. Spitting behaviour of hatchling red spitting cobras (Naja pallida). The Herpetological Journal 19: 185-191 - get paper here
 
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