Micrurus psyches (DAUDIN, 1803)

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Higher Taxa	Elapidae, Elapoidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Northern coral snake, Carib Coral Snake Portuguese: Cobra-Coral, Cobra-Coral-do-Pará, Coral-Verdadeira
Synonym	Vipera psyches DAUDIN 1803: 320 Elaps psyches — MERREM 1820 Elaps psyches — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854: 1212 Elaps psyches BOULENGER 1896 Micrurus psyches — BEEBE 1919: 216 Micrurus psyches psyches — AMARAL 1931: 89 Micrurus psyches — BEEBE 1946: 46 Micrurus psyches psyches — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 216 Micrurus psyches psyches — GASC & RODRIGUES 1980 Micrurus psyches psyches — WELCH 1994: 89 Micrurus psyches psyches — GORZULA & SEÑARIS 1999 Micrurus psyches — KORNACKER 1999: 158 Micrurus psyches — CARVALHO 2002 Micrurus psyches — WALLACH et al. 2014: 452 Micrurus psyches — NOGUEIRA et al. 2019
Distribution	Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, S/E Venezuela (Bolivar: HR 33: 228), N Brazil (Pará) Type locality: Surinam.
Reproduction	oviparous
Types	Holotype: unlocated, possibly MNHN-RA, a 244 mm male (Le Vaillant); note that MNHN-RA 7654 is not a type of Daudin but its head skull was included in Jan's Iconographie Générale
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: A coral snake with numerous black rings alternating with narrow yellow (or white) ones, with the alternate black rings distinguishably different in width; these alternate rings sometimes much lighter in color, evidently red rings with the scales darkened by black pigment; top of head black, without crossbands, with a narrow light band separating the black pileus from the nuchal ring; no supra-anal tubercles in adult males [from SCHMIDT 1955]. Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about about .16 pages) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material.
Comment	Venomous! Subspecies: These former subspecies of Micrurus psyches are now regarded as separate species: (M. circinalis), M. medemi, M. paraensis & M. remotus Synonymy partly after PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970. Distribution: not in Colombia fide Bernal (2025).
Etymology	In Greek psyche means soul; it also means butterfly. It is difficult to interpret this name; perhaps it refers to a butterflylike head pattern found in some specimens (Roze 1996: 210).
References	Amaral, A. D. 1931. Studies of neotropical ophidia XXIII. Additional notes on Colombian snakes XXVI. Ophidia of Colombia. Bulletin of the Antivenin Institute of America 4 (4): 85-94 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 Beebe, William 1946. Field notes on the snakes of Kartabo, British Guiana, and Caripito, Venezuela. Zoologica 31: 11-52 - get paper here Bernal, R. 2025. Serpientes de Colombia-Guía de Campo. Serie de Guías Tropicales de Campo. 19: 396 pp. Conservación Internacional Colombia, Bogotá - 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 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 Cope, E.D. 1878. Synopsis of the cold blooded Vertebrata, procured by Prof. James Orton, during his exploration of Peru in 1876-77. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 17: 33-49 [1877] - get paper here Daudin, F. M. 1803. Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière des Reptiles, Vol. 8. F. Dufart, Paris, 439 pp. - get paper here Duméril, A. M. C., Bibron, G. & DUMÉRIL, A. H. A., 1854. Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Deuxième partie, comprenant l'histoire des serpents venimeux. Paris, Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret: i-xii + 781-1536 - get paper here Garman, S. 1887. On West Indian reptiles in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 24: 278-286. - 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 Gorzula, Stefan & Senaris, J. Celsa 1999. In: Contribution to the herpetofauna of the Venezuelan Guayana. I: a data base. Scientia Guaianae, Caracas, No. 8 [1998], 269+ pp.; ISBN 980-6020-48-0 Jan, G. 1858. Plan d'une iconographie descriptive des ophidiens et description sommaire de nouvelles espèces des serpents. Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris (2) 10: 438-449, 514-527 - 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 Morato de Carvalho, C. 2002. Descrição de uma nova espécie de Micrurus do Estado de Roraima, Brasil (Serpentes, Elapidae). Pap. Avul. Zool., Sao Paulo 42(8):183-192 - get paper here Natera-Mumaw, Marco; Luis Felipe Esqueda-González & Manuel Castelaín-Fernández 2015. Atlas Serpientes de Venezuela. Santiago de Chile, Dimacofi Negocios Avanzados S.A., 456 pp. - get paper here 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 Pérez-Santos,C. & Moreno, A.G. 1988. Ofidios de Colombia. Museo reegionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Monographie VI, 517 pp. Quelch, J.J. 1899. The poisonous snakes of British Guiana. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) 3: 402-409 - 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 Roze J A 1989. New species and subspecies of coral snakes, genus Micrurus (Elapidae), with notes on type specimens of several species. American Museum Novitates (2932) : 1-15 - get paper here Roze, J. A. 1996. Coral Snakes of the Americas. Krieger, Malabar, Florida Roze, Jánis A 1967. A checklist of the New World venomous Coral Snakes (Elapidae), with descriptions of new forms. American Museum Novitates (2287): 1-60 - 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 Silva, Jr., Nelson Jorge da; Darlan Tavares Feitosa, Matheus Godoy Pires, and Ana Lúcia da Costa Prudente 2021. CHAPTER 5. CORALSNAKE DIVERSITY IN BRAZIL. In: Nelson Jorge da Silva Jr. et al. (eds.) Advances in Coralsnake Biology. Eagle Mountain Publishing, pp. 142-252 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 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.
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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