Sinomicrurus macclellandi or MacClelland's Coral Snake is a species of snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 found in India, Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, China, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Description

It is a small snake, about 40–80 cm (15.7–31.5 in) long. It has a thin, reddish-brown body, with thin, black cross bars, and a creamy white belly. The head is small, round and black in color, with a broad, creamy white transverse band, and black outlines at the middle of the head. Body scales are smooth, and arranged in 13 parallel longitudinal midbody dorsal scales

Dorsal scales

In snakes, the dorsal scales are the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, but do not include the ventral scales.When counting dorsal scales, numbers are often given for three points along the body, for example 19:21:17...

.

Distribution

It is found in Northern India (Assam, Sikkim, Darjeeling); Arunachal Pradesh (Deban – Changlang district, Chessa, Chimpu – Papum Pare district), Nepal, N Myanmar (Burma), Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, Central and Southern China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (including Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Hainan, north to Gansu and Shaanxi), Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 (Ryukyu Islands), Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

.

Subspecies iwasakii is found in Ishigaki Island

Ishigaki

*Ishigaki Island*Ishigaki, Okinawa*Ishigaki Airport*Japanese escort Ishigaki*Ai Ishigaki , guitarist for The Mad Capsule Markets*Ishigaki Rin...

 and other Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

 in Japan. Subspecies swinhoei is found in Taiwan. Subspecies univirgatus is found in Nepal, and Sikkim

Sikkim

Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...

.

Behavior and habitat

It is mainly nocturnal and terrestrial. It occurs in forest litter, hillside, and lowland. It is often found hiding under leaves. Although this is a venomous species, it is quite docile and not likely to strike actively. It preys on small reptiles, such as lizards and snakes.

Venom

Like other elapidae

Elapidae

Elapidae is a family of venomous snakes found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, terrestrially in Asia, Australia, Africa, North America and South America and aquatically in the Pacific and Indian Oceans...

, it possesses a potent neurotoxic

Neurotoxicity

Neurotoxicity occurs when the exposure to natural or artificial toxic substances, which are called neurotoxins, alters the normal activity of the nervous system in such a way as to cause damage to nervous tissue. This can eventually disrupt or even kill neurons, key cells that transmit and process...

venom, which is capable of killing a person. Bite symptoms include numbness of lips and difficulty of speech and breathing, followed by blurred vision. Severe bite victims may die of respiratory failure, although there have been only a few human deaths recorded in Thailand.

Other sources

• Reinhardt, JT (1844) Calcutta J. Nat. Hist., 4:532
• Reinhardt (1861) Herpetologiske Middelelser. II. Beskrivelser af nogle nye til Calamariernes Familie henhörende Slänger. Vidensk. Meddel. Naturhist. Foren. Kjöbenhavn 2 [1860]:229-250
• Slowinski, Joseph B; Boundy, Jeff and Lawson, R (2001) The phylogenetic relationships of Asian coral snakes (Elapidae Calliophis and Maticora) based on morphological and molecular characters. Herpetologica 57(2):233-245
• http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/living_hazards/snakes.html#Calliophismacclellandi
• A field guide to the venomous land snake in Hong Kong (ISBN 978-988-211-326-8)

External links

• http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Sinomicrurus_macclellandi.jpg
• http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~fwic4591/snake/ejaphebi.htm