Micrurus isozonus (COPE, 1860)
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Micrurus isozonus
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| Higher Taxa | Elapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | Micrurus isozonus isozonus (COPE 1860) Micrurus isozonus sandneri ARENAS-VARGAS 2015 |
| Common Names | E: Equal-banded coral snake, Venezuela Coral Snake E: Sandner’s coral snake Portuguese: Cobra-Coral, Coral-Verdadeira, Cobra-Coral-da-Venezuela |
| Synonym | Elaps isozonus COPE 1860: 73 Elaps omissus BOULENGER 1920: 109 Micrurus isozonus — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 1989: 121 Micrurus isozonus — GORZULA & SEÑARIS 1999 Micrurus isozonus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 448 Micrurus isozonus sandneri ARENAS-VARGAS 2015 |
| Distribution | N/C Venezuela (Cojedes, Anzoátegui, Aragua, Bolívar, DF, Guárico, Miranda, Monagas, Sucre), Isla Margarita, Colombia (Bolívar, Arauca), Brazil (Rio Cotinga region in Roraima [ROZE in 1996]), SW Guyana [KOK et al. 2003]) Type locality: Caracas, Venezuela. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntypes: ANSP 6804-05 (2) Holotype: unlocated, collected by I. Heredia de Arenas & I S. Arenas-Vargas, 17 August 1998 [sandneri] |
| Diagnosis | Definition: .A triad-type coral snake with a spotted snout of black and white, followed by an interorbital black band and by a red parietal band. The first triad is complete and the white or yellow bands are usually longer than the black bands. The red and white bands have conspicuous, black-tipped scales. Description: Males have 199 to 217 (207.8) and females have 215 to 225 (219.3) ventrals; subcaudals 26 to 33 (29.2) in males and 25 to 29 (27.3) in females; usually several subcaudals are undivided. Examined: 41 males and 24 females, including the 3 type specimens. The snout is spotted with black and white; frequently the intemasals are covered by an irregular black band. The prefrontals are either blackish or white with black posterior borders. The black interorbital band is irregular and usually projects backward to include the anterior tip of the frontal. The red parietal band has occasional black spots. The chin is white and red with irregular black spots on the mental and the first infralabials. The outer black band of the first triad usually reaches the posterior tips of the parietals. The black central band of the triads is slightly longer than the outer bands. It extends over about 3 dorsals but is generally shorter than the white bands; very rarely they are of equal length. The white bands are 3 to 5 dorsals and ventrals long, with conspicuous, blacktipped scales and occasionallight brownish overtones, especially in large specimens. The triads have approximately the same proportions on the tail. The males have 10 to 13 (11.2) (one specimen from Colombia has 9) and the females have 10 to 14 (11.8) black triads. Both sexes have 1 to 1/3 triads, very rarely 1 2/3 triads. |
| Comment | Distribution: Erroneously cited as occuring in Peru. See map in Nogueira et al. 2019. Venomous! Suspecies: Micrurus isozonus sandneri was described in a privately published outlet. |
| Etymology | The name isozonus, Latin for equal areas or zones, alludes to the approximately equal length of the black and white bands. |
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