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Naja nubiae WÜSTER & BROADLEY, 2003

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Higher TaxaElapidae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Nubian Spitting Cobra
G: Nubische Speikobra 
SynonymNaja nubiae WÜSTER & BROADLEY 2003
Vipera (Naia) haje ST. HILAIRE 1827: 157 (not LINNAEUS) (part)
Naja nigricollis — ANDERSON 1896: 109 (not REINHARDT)
Naja nigricollis — ANDERSON 1904: 5
Naja nigricollis — WERNER 1908: 1883
Naja nigricollis — BOULENGER 1915: 656 (part)
Naja nigricollis — WERNER 1919: 507
Naja nigricollis — WERNER 1927: 77
Naja nigricollis — SCORTECCI 1928: 306
Naja nigricollis — SCORTECCI 1930: 204
Naia nigricollis var. mossambica — BOULENGER 1896: 379 (not PETERS) (part.)
Naja nigricollis nigricollis — LOVERIDGE 1945: 3 (not REINHARDT)
Naja nigricollis nigricollis — MARX 1968: 40
Naja nigricollis pallida — EISELT 1962: 294 (not BOULENGER)
Naja mossambica pallida (not BOULENGER) BROADLEY 1968: 11 (part)
Naja mossambica pallida — HARDING & WELCH 1980: 12 (part)
Naja mossambica pallida — MEIRTE 1992: 58 (part)
Naja pallida — BRANCH 1979: 215 (part) (not BOULENGER)
Naja pallida — HUGHES 1983: 332, 352 (part)
Naja pallida — LARGEN & RASMUSSEN 1993: 382 (part)
Naja pallida — LARGEN 1997: 93
Naja pallida — SPAWLS & BRANCH 1995: 76 (part)
Naja pallida — GOLAY 1985: 47 (part)
Naja pallida — OSMAN & EL SIR 1988: 77
Naja pallida — BROADLEY et al. 1993: 190 (part)
Naja pallida — DAVID & INEICH 1999: 165 (part)
Naja (Afronaja) nubiae — WALLACH et al. 2009
Afronaja nubiae — WALLACH et al. 2014: 11 
DistributionEgypt, Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Djibouti

Type locality: Kom Ombo (=Kawn Umbû), Aswan Governorate, Egypt (24°28’ N, 32°57’ E).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: YPM R 3916, Peabody Museum, Yale University. Paratypes: ZFMK 32391, BMNH, MHNG, MNHN, NHRM. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: The new species can be differentiated from Naja pallida, with which it was until now confused, through its throat and neck pattern: N. pallida normally has a single, broad dark band across the throat; this encircles the body and crosses the neck. There is no other pattern on the body or throat, except in a small minority (c.5%)of specimens, which have a more or less obvious second dark band across the throat, but not across the neck. In N. nubiae, there are two bands across the neck: a nape band situated immediately behind the parietal scales, and the main band further back. The nape band may or may not cross the throat. The second, main neck band invariably crosses the throat, usually in a more posterior position than the throat band of N. pallida. A further dark ventral band is present in N. nubiae,but may be faint in older specimens. There is a distinct light throat area before the main throat band, and practically all specimens feature a small dark spot on each side of the throat, at the junction of the ventrals and the dorsals. This resembles the lateral throat spots seen in most Asiatic species. Additionally the bases of the scales are strongly blackened in N. nubiae, but not in N. pallida. Most N. nubiae have seven supralabials, even when two preoculars are present, whereas in most N. pallida, specimens with two preoculars have only six supralabials. 
CommentVenomous!

Distribution: For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. 
EtymologyNamed after the region of Nubia, home of the first black African civilization, which occupied the Nile Valley between Aswan and Khartoum, in present day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Most museum specimens of this species originate from this region. 
References
  • Anderson, John 1896. A Contribution to the Herpetology of Arabia, with a preliminary list of the reptiles and batrachians of Egypt. London, R. H. Porter, 124 pp. - get paper here
  • Andersson, L. G. 1904. List of reptiles and batrachians collected by the Swedish zoological expedition to Egypt, the Sudan and the Sinaitic Peninsula. In Results of the Swedish zoological expedition to Egypt, the Sudan and the Sinaitic Peninsula:1–12. Jägerskiöld, L. A. (E Uppsala.
  • Böhme, Wolfgang 2014. Herpetology in Bonn. Mertensiella 21. vi + 256 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G. A. 1915. A list of the snakes of the Belgian and Portuguese Congo, northern Rhodesia, and Angola. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1915: 193-223 - 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
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  • 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
  • Loveridge, Arthur 1945. On a collection of reptiles from Eriterea. Notulae Naturae (151): 1-4
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  • Scortecci, Giuseppe 1930. Rettili ed Anfibi raccolti dal Prof. E. Zavattari in Eritrea. Atti. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. (Milano), 69: 193-217. - get paper here
  • Sindaco, R.; Alberto Venchi & Cristina Grieco 2013. The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic, Volume 2: Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Snakes of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, with an Update to Volume 1. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina (Italy), 543 pp. - get paper here
  • Spawls, S., Branch, B. 1995. The Dangerous Snakes of Africa. Blandford, London, 192 pp.
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch& Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - get paper here
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  • Trape, Jean-François; Israël Demba Kodindo, Ali Sougoudi Djiddi, Joseph Mad-Toïngué & Clément Hinzoumbé Kerah 2020. The snakes of Chad: results of a field survey and annotated country-wide checklist. Bonn zoological Bulletin 69 (2): 367–393 - get paper here
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  • Werner, F. 1927. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der mit Unterstützung der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien aus der Erbschaft Treitl von F. Werner unternommen zoologischen Expedition nach dem Anglo–Ägyptischen Sudan (Kordofan) 1914. XXIV. Miscellanea Sudanica. G. Zur Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-natwiss. Kl. 101: 67–78.
  • Werner,F. 1919. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der mit Unterstützung der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien aus der Erbschaft Treitl von F. Werner unternommenen zoologischen Expedition nach dem Anglo-Aegyptischen Sudan (Kordofan) 1914. IV. Bearbeitung de Denkschr. Akad. Wiss Wien, Math.-Naturw. Klasse 96: 437-509 - get paper here
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  • 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
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