Читать книгу Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics - A. Calmette - Страница 41

Maxillary bone curved upwards, bearing a pair of powerful poison-fangs, not fissured, and not followed by other teeth; a long tooth at the end of each ramus of the mandible. Head narrow, elongate; eye moderate, with round pupil; nostril between two shields. Body slightly compressed; scales smooth, narrow, very oblique, in 13–23 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail long; subcaudals in 2 rows.

(1) D. viridis.—211–225 ventral scales; 107–119 subcaudals.

Colour uniform olive-green. Shields on the head edged with black; lips yellow; belly and tail yellow, with scales and shields bordered with black.

Total length, 1,830 millimetres; tail 460.

Habitat: West Africa, from the Senegal to the Niger; St. Thome Island.

(2) D. jamesonii.—Coloration as before. Scales in 15–19 rows (19–21 on the neck); 210–235 ventrals; 99–121 subcaudals. Tail sometimes black.

Total length, 2,100 millimetres; tail 560.

Habitat: West Africa, from the Niger to Angola; Central Africa.

(3) D. angusticeps (The Mamba).—202–270 ventral scales; 99–121 subcaudals.

Colour green, olive, or blackish, uniform; belly yellowish or pale green; caudal scales and shields not bordered with black.

Total length, 2,000 millimetres; tail 430.

Habitat: West Africa, south of the Congo; Central Africa, East Africa, Transvaal, Natal.

(4) D. antinorii.—Scales in 21–23 rows; 248 ventrals; 117 subcaudals. Colour olive on the back, yellowish on the belly.

Total length, 2,690 millimetres; tail 545.

Habitat: Abyssinia.