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Suta nigriceps (GÜNTHER, 1863)

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Higher TaxaElapidae (Hydrophiinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Mallee Black-backed Snake 
SynonymHoplocephalus 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 
DistributionAustralia (New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia)

Type locality: “probably from Australia”  
Reproductionovoviviparous. 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.1.20.70, "probably from Australia".
Holotype: SAMA R3137, from Fowler's Bay, S. A. [Denisonia nigrostriata brevicauda]. 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 969 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentVenomous!

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed 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
 
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