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Micrurus psyches (DAUDIN, 1803)

IUCN Red List - Micrurus psyches - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Northern coral snake, Carib Coral Snake
Portuguese: Cobra-Coral, Cobra-Coral-do-Pará, Coral-Verdadeira 
SynonymVipera 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 
DistributionGuyana, French Guiana, Suriname, S/E Venezuela (Bolivar: HR 33: 228), N Brazil (Pará)

Type locality: Surinam.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: 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 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: 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]. 
CommentVenomous!

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). 
EtymologyIn 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
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  • 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
  • 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.
 
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