Ingram's brown snake
| Ingram's brown snake | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Elapidae |
| Genus: | Pseudonaja |
| Species: | P. ingrami
|
| Binomial name | |
| Pseudonaja ingrami (Boulenger, 1908)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Ingram's brown snake (Pseudonaja ingrami) is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to Australia.
Taxonomy
[edit]Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger described the species in 1908 as Diemenia ingrami, from a specimen collected on Alexandria Station in the Northern Territory.[2] The specific name, ingrami, is in honour of Collingwood Ingram, who was an English ornithologist and horticulturist.[3] The brown snakes were moved to the genus Pseudonaja by Australian naturalist Eric Worrell in the early 1960s on the basis of skull morphology, and reinforced by American herpetologist Samuel Booker McDowell in 1967 on the basis of the muscles of the venom glands. This classification has been followed by subsequent authors.[4] Genetic analysis indicates that Ingram's brown snake is diverged from the ancestor of all other brown snakes except the more basal ringed brown snake (P. modesta) and speckled brown snake (P. guttata).[5]
Description
[edit]Ingram's brown snake grows to 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) in total length (including tail). It has a grey-brown to dark brown head and nape, black-brown to golden brown upper parts.[6] It has 17 rows of dorsal scales at midbody, 190 to 220 ventral scales, 55 to 70 divided subcaudal scales (occasionally some of the anterior ones are undivided), and a divided anal scale.[7]
Distribution and habitat
[edit]P. ingrami is native to a broad swathe of inland Australia, from northwestern Queensland to northeastern Western Australia.[8] It lives in tussock grasslands on black soil, retreating into earth crevices.[7]
Feeding
[edit]Ingram's brown snake eats small birds and mammals.[9]
Reproduction
[edit]P. ingrami is oviparous,[1] with clutches ranging between 12 and 18 eggs.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Species Pseudonaja ingrami at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database.org.
- ^ Boulenger, George Albert (1908). "Description of a new Elapine snake from Australia". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Eighth Series. 1 (4): 333–334. doi:10.1080/00222930808692409. (Diemenia ingrami, new species).
- ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Ingram, C.I., p. 130).
- ^ Mengden, Gregory A. (1983). "The taxonomy of Australian elapid snakes: a review" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 35 (5): 195–222. [202]. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.35.1983.318. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
- ^ Skinner, Adam (2009). "A multivariate morphometric analysis and systematic review of Pseudonaja (Serpentes, Elapidae, Hydrophiinae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 155: 171–97. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00436.x.
- ^ Mirtschin, Peter; Rasmussen, Arne; Weinstein, Scott (2017). Australia's Dangerous Snakes: Identification, Biology and Envenoming. CSIRO Publishing. p. 131. ISBN 9780643106741.
- ^ a b Cogger HG (2014). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Seventh Edition. Clayton, Victoria, Australia: CSIRO Publishing. xxx + 1,033 pp. ISBN 978-0643100350. (Pseudonaja ingrami, p. 925).
- ^ Australian Biological Resources Study (26 August 2013). "Species Pseudonaja ingrami (Boulenger, 1908)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ a b Shine, Richard (1989). "Constraints, allometry, and adaptation: food habits and reproductive biology of Australian brownsnakes (Pseudonaja: Elapidae)". Herpetologica. 45 (2): 195–207. JSTOR 3892162.