The New Neotropical Companion

do not have red bands touching yellow (plates 16- 69–
70). It’s safest just to avoid colorful snakes with any
combination of red, black, and/or yellow rings. They
may be coral snakes, and you don’t want to be holding
a coral snake.
Coral snakes are members of the global family
Elapidae, to which the deadly cobras and mambas
belong. Their powerful venom is a neurotoxin (a venom
affecting the nervous system) that quickly produces
paralysis and death by suffocation. Lengths vary among
species, but coral snakes typically reach between 0.6
and 1.2 m (2– 4 ft), though some species can be more
than 1.6 m (5.25 ft). Unlike pitvipers, coral snakes have
short fangs and must bite with force to inject their lethal
venom. Coral snakes are active both day and night and
are most often found beneath leaves, logs, or rocks in
habitats ranging from deserts to lowland rain forest.
They eat mostly lizards and other snakes.
Recall that the bright patterning, which typifies
all coral snake species, is considered to be warning
coloration (described in detail in chapter 11). But
warning goes only so far, and so coral snakes exhibit
various escape behaviors, such as raising the tail and
moving it in tandem with the head, possibly making
the animal appear as two snakes rather than one.
When threatened, a coral snake will actively thrash its
body, wave its tail, and may try to bite. Handling one is
therefore dangerous, because its narrow head can easily
slip through fingers, giving the snake an opportunity to
strike, and you don’t want that to happen. Many species
of nonvenomous snakes, often collectively called “false
coral snakes” (see chapter 11 and plates 11- 25– 27),

converge in color pattern with coral snakes wherever

their ranges overlap. For example, coral snake mimicry

is shown by the nonvenomous Lampropeltis triangulum

hondurensis, which, in Honduras, looks similar to the

coral snake Micrurus nigrocinctus divaricatus. In both,

wide, bright red bands alternate with thinner black

bands, and the snout is black. If you should encounter

a coral snake, or any serpent that looks like it could be

one, you are wise to avoid touching it.

More Snakes: The Constrictors

The world’s largest snakes are constrictors (family

Boidae). In the Old World, these snakes are called

pythons, but in the Neotropics they are the boas and

anacondas. A few boas are found in Madagascar and

the Indo- Pacific islands, but most are in the Americas.

Boas are nonvenomous, though their teeth are needle-

sharp, and their bite can be nasty. With wide heads, wide

bodies, and elaborate patterning, they are sometimes

confused with pitvipers. Boas capture and kill prey

through constriction, a process whereby the serpent

coils around its victim tightly enough to prevent it from

breathing, eventually killing it by suffocation. Following

death of the victim, constrictors, like all snakes, swallow

their prey whole, opening their mouths widely, due to

jaws attached only by elastic ligaments.

The Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria; plate 16- 71) is

one of the smaller boids, normally growing to about 1

m (39 in.) long. To be appreciated, this little constrictor

must be observed in full sunlight, which makes its dull

blackish- brown scales sparkle with the iridescent colors

that give the snake its popular name. Rainbow Boas are

Plate 16- 69. “Red and black, friend of Jack”? Nope. This is
Micrurus ibiboboca, one of the Brazilian coral snake species.
Beware. Photo by Andrew Whittaker.

Plate 16- 70. The Bicolored Coral Snake (Micrurus nigrocinctus)

is a Central American species. Photo by James Adams.

350 chapter 16 from monkeys to tarantulas: endless eccentricities