Suta nigriceps (GÜNTHER, 1863)

Find more photos by Google images search:

Higher Taxa	Elapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Mallee Black-backed Snake
Synonym	Hoplocephalus nigriceps GÜNTHER 1863: 362 Denisonia nigrostriata brevicauda MITCHELL 1951: 550 Unechis brevicaudus COGGER 1975 Denisonia nigriceps — STORR 1981 Unechis nigriceps — MENGDEN 1983 Unechis nigriceps — COGGER 1983: 238 Rhinoplocephalus nigriceps — STORR 1984 Suta nigriceps — HUTCHINSON 1990 Suta nigriceps — COGGER 2000: 691 Parasuta nigriceps — GREER 2006 (online) Parasuta nigriceps — WILSON & SWAN 2010: 492 Parasuta nigriceps — WALLACH et al. 2014: 534 Suta nigriceps — MARYAN et al. 2020
Distribution	Australia (New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia) Type locality: “probably from Australia”
Reproduction	ovoviviparous.
Types	Holotype: BMNH 1946.1.20.70, "probably from Australia". Holotype: SAMA R3137, from Fowler's Bay, S. A. [Denisonia nigrostriata brevicauda].
Diagnosis	Additional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (969 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Venomous! Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018).
Etymology	Named after the black head, from Latin nigra = black and -ceps, short for head.
References	Bush, B. 1981. Reptiles of the Kalgoorlie-Esperance Region. B. Bush, Perth, 46 pp - get paper here Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp. Coventry, A. J. 1971. Identification of the black-headed snakes (Denisonia) within Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 88: 304-306 - get paper here Günther. A. 1863. Third account of new species of snakes in the collection of the British Museum. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 12: 348 - 365 - get paper here Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here Hutchinson M N 1990. The generic classification of the Australian terrestrial elapid snakes. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 29 (3): 397-405 - get paper here MARYAN, BRAD; IAN G. BRENNAN, MARK N. HUTCHINSON, LUKAS S. GEIDANS 2020. What’s under the hood? Phylogeny and taxonomy of the snake genera Parasuta Worrell and Suta Worrell (Squamata: Elapidae), with a description of a new species from the Pilbara, Western Australia. Zootaxa 4778 (1): 1–47 - get paper here Mengden, Gregory A. 1983. The taxonomy of Australian elapid snakes: A review. Rec. Austral. Mus. 35 (5): 195-222 - get paper here Mitchell, F. J. 1951. The South Australian Reptile Fauna. Part. 1. Ophidia. Rec. South Austral. Mus. 9: 545—557. - get paper here Storr, G.M. 1981. The Denisonia gouldii species-group (Serpentes, Elapidae) in Western Australia. Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 8: 501-515 - get paper here Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp. 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. Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp. Wright, L. J., Nimmo, D. G., Green, M. C., Simpson, R. E., Wassens, S., & Michael, D. R. 2025. Remnant Habitat Patches Have Lower Reptile Richness and Diversity Compared to Areas of Continuous Habitat. Austral Ecology, 50(3), e70045 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.kingsnake.com/oz/snakes/elapids/elapids.htm http://www.amonline.net.au/herpetology/research/pdf/elapidae.pdf http://www.arod.com.au/arod/reptilia/Squamata/Elapidae/Parasuta/nigriceps Google images

Is it interesting? Share with others:

Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator