Naja atra

2 . 2 Naja atra - Chinese Cobra

(Formosa Island Cobra)

CB'08 Female

AtrCbr-001-08-F

CB'08 Female

AtrCbr-002-08-F

CB'10 Male

AtrCbr-003-10-M

CB'10 Male

AtrCbr-004-10-M

The two female '08 Chinese Naja atra were acquired in a trade with a friend. The photos were taken by that friend. He has also acquired 2.0 cb'10 Brown Chinese Cobras in Europe for me. I will receive them in a future shipment.

..........ID.#..........	..Around.Neck..	....Mid-body....	..Before.Vent..	.....Ventral.....	..Subcaudal..
AtrCbr-001-08-F	28	23	17	171	48
AtrCbr-002-08-F	27	21	15	175	49
AtrCbr-003-10-M	.	.	.	.	.
AtrCbr-004-10-M	.	.	.	.	.

Most of the information below was taken from the website: Asiatic Naja by Wolfgang Wuster

Pattern & Color:

Dorsal color brown, gray or black; often light, chevron-shaped bands across dorsum, which are frequently split into double or quadruple bands; hood mark shape variable: spectacle, mask, horseshoe or O- shape, often linked to light throat area on at least one side; clearly defined light throat area, usually a pair of clearly defined lateral spots.

Scalation:

Around Hood - 23 - 29 (usually 25 - 27)

Mid-body - 19 - 21

Before Vent - 15

Ventral - 161 - 180

Sub-caudal - 35 - 51

Size:

90 - 120 cm, sometimes over 150 cm.

Distribution:

Northern Laos, northern Vietnam, China (north-east to the mouth of the Yangtze River), Taiwan, Hainan.

Taxonomic comment:

Easily confused with Naja kaouthia. Most easily distinguished by virtue of having lower ventral and sub caudal scale counts, particular when sex is taken into account.

Some of the information on this page may have been copied from the publications below.

WCH Clinical Toxinology Resources

The University of Adelaide, Australia

http://www.toxinology.com/

The Snakes of Thailand and Their Husbandry by Merel J. Cox

Handbook To The Dangerously Venomous Snakes Of Myanmar

Alan E. Leviton, George R. Zug, Jens V. Vindum, and Guinevere O.U. Wogan

Venomous Snakes

Snakes in the Terrarium

by Ludwig Trutnau

Links below copied from the website of Wolfgang Wüster

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/Taxa/AsNaja.htm

SLOWINSKI, J.B. & W. WÜSTER (2000) A new cobra (Elapidae: Naja) from Myanmar (Burma). Herpetologica, 56(2): 257-270. pdf

WÜSTER, W. (1992) A century of confusion: Asiatic cobras revisited. The Vivarium, 4: 14-18. pdf

WÜSTER, W. (1996) Taxonomic changes and toxinology: systematic revisions of the Asiatic cobras (Naja naja species complex). Toxicon, 34(4): 399-406. pdf

WÜSTER, W. (1998) The cobras of the genus Naja in India. Hamadryad, 23(1): 15-32. pdf

WÜSTER, W. & R.S. THORPE (1989) Population affinities of the Asiatic cobra (Naja naja) species complex in south-east Asia: reliability and random resampling. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 36: 391-409. pdf

WÜSTER, W. & R.S. THORPE (1991) Asiatic cobras: systematics and snakebite. Experientia, 47: 205-209. pdf

WÜSTER, W. & R.S. THORPE (1992) Asiatic cobras: population systematics of the Naja naja species complex (Serpentes: Elapidae) in India and Central Asia. Herpetologica, 48(1): 69-85. pdf

WÜSTER, W. & R.S. THORPE (1994) Naja siamensis, a cryptic species of venomous snake revealed by mtDNA sequencing. Experientia, 50: 75-79. pdf

WÜSTER, W., R.S. THORPE, M.J. COX, P. JINTAKUNE & J. NABHITABHATA (1995) Population systematics of the snake genus Naja (Reptilia: Serpentes: Elapidae) in Indochina: multivariate morphometrics and comparative mitochondrial DNA sequencing (cytochrome oxidase I). Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 8: 493-510. pdf

WÜSTER, W., D.A. WARRELL, M.J. COX, P. JINTAKUNE & J. NABHITABHATA (1997) Redescription of Naja siamensis Laurenti, 1768 (Serpentes: Elapidae), a widely overlooked spitting cobra from Southeast Asia: geographic variation, medical importance and designation of a neotype. Journal of Zoology, 243: 771-788. pdf