Читать книгу Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics - A. Calmette - Страница 54

Maxillaries extending forwards as far as the palatines, with a pair of large grooved poison-fangs, and, after a wide interval, 8–12 small grooved teeth. The anterior mandibular teeth are of large size, almost like fangs. Head hardly distinct from the neck; eyes small, with vertically elliptic pupils. Body cylindrical; scales smooth, in 15–17 rows. Tail moderate or short; subcaudal scales in 2 rows.

(1) P. muelleri.—Scales in 15 rows. Nasal shield divided, in contact with the præocular; 2 + 2 temporals; 139–176 ventral scales; 21–35 subcaudals.

Colour brown, with a light vertebral line; a more or less distinct dark, light-edged streak on each side of the head, passing through the eye; belly yellowish or coral-red; uniform or spotted with black.

Total length, 500 millimetres; tail 70.

Habitat: Moluccas, New Guinea, New Britain.

(2) P. squamulosus.—Scales in 15 rows. Nasal shield divided, in contact with the præocular; 1 + 2 temporals; 170–183 ventrals; 34–52 subcaudals.

Colour brown, with a yellowish streak round the snout and through the eyes to the nape; belly whitish, with confluent black spots forming lines on each side.

Total length, 375 millimetres; tail 55.

Habitat: New South Wales.

(3) P. krefftii (fig. 44).—Nasal shield entire, in contact with the præocular; 1 + 2 temporals; 146–156 ventrals; 26–38 subcaudals.

Colour dark brown, with a light longitudinal line on each scale; a yellowish cross-band on the occiput, connected with another yellow band which encircles the snout.

Belly yellowish in front, black behind; subcaudals white, with a longitudinal black band running between them.

Fig. 44.—Pseudelaps krefftii.

Fig. 45.—Pseudelaps harriettæ.

Fig. 46.—Pseudelaps diadema.

Total length, 255 millimetres; tail 33.

Habitat: Queensland.

(4) P. harriettæ (fig. 45).—Nasal shield entire, in contact with or narrowly separated from the præocular; 1 + 2 temporals; 176–193 ventrals; 29–35 subcaudals.

Colour dark brown, with a light longitudinal line on each scale; a long yellow blotch on the nape, and, connected with this, a yellow ring round the snout; ventrals and subcaudals brown or black, edged with white.

Total length, 415 millimetres; tail 45.

Habitat: Queensland.

(5) P. diadema (fig. 46).—Nasal shield entire, widely separated from the præocular; 2 + 2 temporals; third and fourth upper labials entering the eye; 164–203 ventrals; 40–62 subcaudals. Colour pale brown or reddish, with a brown edging to each scale forming a reticulate pattern; a yellow cross-band on the occiput; belly uniformly white.

Total length, 600 millimetres; tail 80.

Habitat: Eastern, Northern, and Western Australia.

(6) P. warro.—Characters the same as in the previous species; 143 ventrals. Colour brown; a broad lunate black collar on the nape; head black above, but paler than the collar.

Habitat: Port Curtis, Queensland.

(7) P. sutherlandi.—Characters as before. Scales on the body in 17 rows; 160 ventrals; 40 subcaudals. Colour red-brown on the back, yellow on the belly; a broad lunate black collar on the nape, with a lighter edging; light bars across the head, body, and tail.

Habitat: Norman River, Queensland.