Common names: Eastern coral snake, common coral snake, American cobra, more.

Micrurus fulvius is a venomous

Venomous snake

"Poisonous snake" redirects here. For true poisonous snakes, see Rhabdophis.Venomous snakes are snakes which have venom glands and specialized teeth for the injection of venom...

 elapid

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...

 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...

 that is found in the southeastern United States

Southeastern United States

The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....

 and northeastern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It should not be confused with the scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea) or scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides), which are harmless mimics. No subspecies are currently recognized.

Description

Generally less than 80 cm (31.5 in) in length, with maximum reported lengths of 121.8 cm (48 in) for a specimen in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 (Niell, 1958) and 129.5 cm (51 in) (Roze, 1996). Males have longer tails than females, but females reach a greater total length.

The 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...

 are smooth in 15 rows. The ventral scales

Ventral scales

In snakes, the ventral scales are the enlarged and transversely elongated scales that extend down the underside of the body from the neck to the anal scale. When counting them, the first is the anteriormost ventral scale that contacts the paraventral row of dorsal scales on either side...

 number 197-217 in males and 219-233 in females. There are 40-47 subcaudals in males and 30-37 in females. The anal plate is divided.

The color pattern consists of a series of rings that encircle the body: wide red and black rings separated by narrow yellow rings. The head is black from the rostral to just behind the eyes. The red rings are usually speckled with black. People who live in its natural range are often taught a folk rhyme as children: "Red touches black, friend of Jack, red touches yellow, kill a fellow." The rhyme is useful in teaching children to distinguish it from king snakes (Lampropeltis ssp.) which are considered helpful predators of vermin like rats and mice and a much more dangerous snake that should never be handled by any other than an experienced biologist or herpetologist.

Common names

Eastern coral snake, American cobra, candy stick, common coral snake, coral adder, Elaps harlequin snake, Florida coral snake, harlequin coral snake, North American coral snake, red bead snake, thunder-and-lightning snake, candy-stick snake, eastern coralsnake, Florida coralsnake, harlequin coralsnake, serpiente-coralillo arlequín (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

).

Geographic range

Southeastern United States

Southeastern United States

The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....

. Southeastern North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 south through South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 and peninsular Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, and westward through southern Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 and Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 to southeastern Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. May be found at altitudes of near sea level to approximately 400 m (1,312.3 ft).

Habitat

Occurs in upland mesophytic and tropical hammocks in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, as well as glade land, high pine, scrub oak and live oak hammock

Hammock (ecology)

Hammocks are dense stands of hardwood trees that grow on natural rises of only a few inches higher than surrounding marshland that is otherwise too wet to support them. Hammocks are distinctive in that they are formed gradually over thousands of years rising in a wet area through the deposits of...

, Slash Pine and wiregrass

Aristida stricta

Aristida stricta is a warm-season grass, native to North America, that dominates understory vegetation in sandhills and flatwoods coastal plain ecosystems of the Southeastern United States...

 flatwoods

Flatwoods

Flatwoods, Pineywoods, Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass Ecosystem refers to an ecological community in the Southeastern coastal plain of North America...

. In southern Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 and Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 it is found in dry areas with open ground that are bushy but not heavily vegetated. Associated with sandy ridges in Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 and sandy creek bottoms in Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

.
It is rarer in North and South Carolina but is more typically found there in the scrub oak forests and pitch pine habitats near the coast.

Reproduction

It is reported that they lay 3-12 eggs in June that hatch in September. Neonates are 18–23 cm (7.1–9.1 in) in length.

Venom

Only two documented fatalities were attributed to this species in the 1950s and only one has been reported since Wyeth

Wyeth

Wyeth, formerly one of the companies owned by American Home Products Corporation , was a pharmaceutical company. The company was based in Madison, New Jersey, USA...

 antivenin

Antivenin

Antivenom is a biological product used in the treatment of venomous bites or stings. Antivenom is created by milking venom from the desired snake, spider or insect. The venom is then diluted and injected into a horse, sheep or goat...

 became available for it in the 1960s. The most recent fatality attributed to the eastern coral snake occurred in 2009. The victim failed to seek proper medical attention and died several hours after being bitten, becoming the first fatality caused by M. fulvius in over 40 years.

M. fulvius does not account for many cases of snakebite in the U.S. because of its secretive nature and general reluctance to bite (its venomous potential was still being debated in the 1880s). In addition, it is estimated that envenomation occurs in only 40% of all bites. But unlike New World pitvipers

Crotalinae

The Crotalinae, commonly known as "pit vipers" or crotaline snakes, are a subfamily of venomous vipers found in Asia and the Americas. They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on either side of the head...

, this New World coral snake cannot control the amount of primarily neurotoxic

Neurotoxin

A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells , usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Some sources are more general, and define the effect of neurotoxins as occurring at nerve tissue...

 venom injected. Dry bites often result from a near miss or deflection, and although the venom an adult coral snake holds is enough to kill 4–5 adults, it cannot release all its venom in a single bite. Historically, however, the mortality rate was estimated to be about 10–20%, with death occurring in as little as 1–2 hours, or as much as 26 hours post bite. This is not that surprising, since the LD₁₀₀

Lethal dose

A lethal dose is an indication of the lethality of a given substance or type of radiation. Because resistance varies from one individual to another, the 'lethal dose' represents a dose at which a given percentage of subjects will die...

for humans is estimated to be 4–5 mg of dried venom, while the average venom yield is 2–6 mg with a maximum of more than 12 mg. This is probably why it is currently standard hospital procedure in the U.S. to start with antivenin therapy for coral snake bites, even if there are no symptoms yet (since there may not be any noticeable localized symptoms).

External links

• Eastern Coral Snake at Herpetology, Florida Museum of Natural History. Accessed 20 December 2006.
• Eastern Coral Snake, Micrurus fulvius at Georgia Museum of Natural History. Accessed 20 December 2006.
• Coral Snake Micrurus fulvius at [Davidson College, Biology Department]. Accessed 20 December 2006.
• Eastern Coral Snake at Yale Herpetology Page. Accessed 20 December 2006.
• Eastern Coral Snake Micrurus fulvius at Snakes of South Carolina and Georgia. Accessed 20 December 2006.