Family Elapidae
King Cobras
Squamata is the largest group of reptiles with 7588 species and hundreds
more waiting to be discovered. They have scaly bodies with short or small,
useless limbs. Many species have no legs at all. They all range in a wide
variety of sizes and colours. There are 3 suborders, Sauria, Serpentes, and Amphisbaenia.
Serpentes (snakes-also Ophidia)
There are approx 2927 species of snakes in 18 families. Snakes are easily
recognizable in that all snakes are limbless, although boas have vestiges of
limbs. Their eyes are lidless and their tongue is forked. Many species are
poisonous, but only few can actually kill man. There are two groups of
snakes divided largely on their hunting skills: the constrictors (boas,
anacondas, pythons) who strangulate their prey, and the venomous (cobras,
rattlesnakes) who poison their prey. The sea snakes are the most venomous
of all the snakes. The 18 families are:
Anomalopidae (dawn blind snakes) 16 spp
Typhlopidae (blind snakes) 217 spp
Leptotyphlopidae (slender blind snakes) 90 spp
Aniliidae (pipe snakes) 1 spp
Anomochilidae (dwarf pipe snakes) 2 spp
Boidae (boas, pythons) 64 spp
Bolyeridae (Round Island boas) 2 spp
Cylindrophiidae (Asian pipe snakes) 10 spp
Loxocemidae (Mexican burrowing pythons) 1 spp
Tropidophiidae (woodsnakes) 23 spp
Uropeltidae (short-tail snakes) 47 spp
Xenopeltidae (sunbeam snakes) 2 spp
Acrochordidae (file snakes) 3 spp
Atractaspididae (mole vipers) 62 spp
Colubridae (colubrids) 1847 spp
Elapidae (cobras, kraits, coral snakes) 239 spp
Hydrophidae (sea snakes) 61 spp
Viperidae (vipers, pit vipers) 240 spp
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