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Southern Smooth Snakes.: |
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Jimpklop Senior Member Joined: 23 May 2006 No. of posts: 200  View other posts by Jimpklop |
Posted: 19 Jun 2006 Hello A question for any one that is able to answer: Are southern smooth snakes back fanged? Thanks Im Craving Adder's(www.jimpklop.moonfruit.com) |
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Wolfgang Wuster Senior Member Joined: 23 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 326  View other posts by Wolfgang Wuster |
Posted: 20 Jun 2006 They almost certainly have venom glands, like the vast majority of colubrids (including C. austriaca and grass snakes), but no specialised teeth for venom injection. Note that the distinction between rear-fanged and fangless is not at all clear-cut - some colubrids have maxillary teeth of identical size, others have enlarged maxillary teeth (front or rear), some have grooved maxillary teeth, others have maxillary teeth right next to each other, the space forming a functional groove, etc. Moreover, although grooved rear maxillary teeth are the traditional qualifying character of an opisthoglyphous snake (by definition - opisthoglyphous means "rear-grooved"), snakes with ungrooved rear fangs have caused serious or fatal bites - e.g., Rhabdophis keelbacks, false water cobras. All in all, the distinction is not very useful for any purpose. Cheers, WW Wolfgang Wüster School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ |
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Jimpklop Senior Member Joined: 23 May 2006 No. of posts: 200 View other posts by Jimpklop |
Posted: 20 Jun 2006 hi thanks for that. that has cleared that up. this may seem really stupid and i could have miss understood in two places: you said ,"They almost certainly have venom glands, like the vast majority of colubrids (including C. austriaca and grass snakes), but no specialised teeth for venom injection."this means to me that natrix a coronella both have venom glands but no way of injecting.which i never knew before. Or i miss-understood your quote. Please confirm as i am now confused. thanks sorry for messing you about as this is a stupid question. Im Craving Adder's(www.jimpklop.moonfruit.com) |
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Wolfgang Wuster Senior Member Joined: 23 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 326 View other posts by Wolfgang Wuster |
Posted: 21 Jun 2006 No, the quote was perfectly understood - grassies and smoothies do have venom glands, and so do the overwhelming majority of other colubrids, with a few exceptions such as the North American Lampropeltis-Pituophis-Pantherophis group. Lack of specialised teeth does not mean that they cannot inject their venom, just not as effectively as others. If you search around in the forum, you will find tales of swelling and similar minor local symptoms after bites by Coronella and Natrix. Check out the papers by Bryan Fry and colleagues, which you can download from my website (click on www button below). Cheers, WW Wolfgang Wüster School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ |
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Jimpklop Senior Member Joined: 23 May 2006 No. of posts: 200 View other posts by Jimpklop |
Posted: 21 Jun 2006 Hi There Thanks for all that you wouldn't believe how much I thought I knew and how much I was wrong about a few things and how much I learnt from your publications. Very helpful. I feel so stupid now. Would I be able to put a link of your site on mine.(non profit of course) Thanks again Im Craving Adder's(www.jimpklop.moonfruit.com) |
- Southern Smooth Snakes. |