Chapter VII 



DISTRIBUTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 

 POISONOUS LAND SNAKES OF THE WORLD 



INTRODUCTION 



To facilitate tlie idenl ilictt ion of some HfiO spe- 

 cies of poisonous land snakes of tlie world, the 

 land areas have lieen divided into 10 refjions (see 

 ^fap 1). This (•ha])ter has heen divided into 10 

 seiiions (o rorr('s])()nd. In each section has been 

 inchi<lc(l a delinilion of the rcirion, a list of poi- 

 sonous species which occuf in it and their dis- 

 tril)utiou within the area and, importantly, a Key 

 to the (uMiera of poisonous snakes inhabiting the 

 reofion. Tlu^ main body of the text of each sec- 

 tion is se])arated into genei'ic divisions (based 

 upon I he Key to Genera) and each divisioi; is 

 headed by a descri|)tion of the j^-enus. Follow- 

 in<r thereafter are individual descriptions of the 

 poisonous species which are responsible for the 

 largest numbei's of liites within the ai-ea, or are 

 believed to be of serious danger to any adult 

 human inhabiting or entering the region. 



Exce2)t in a few cases which are specifically in- 



dicated, the list of poisonous snakes of the world 

 by Klennner (1063) has been used as the basis 

 for the nomenclature used in this chajiter and 

 elsewhere in the manual. The list of references 

 appended to the end of each section is not in- 

 tended to be comprehensive, but indicates the 

 main sources of information utilized in prej)aring 

 the accounts and may serve as an intioduction to 

 the literature on the poisonous snakes of the 

 region. This same kind of information is given 

 on sea snakes (Hydrophidae) in a separate chap- 

 ter (Chapter VlJl). 



Figures have been inchuled for all of the dan- 

 gerously poisonous species if photographs or 

 drawings were available at the time of juiblica- 

 tion. ^lissing photograi)hs, or likely sources of 

 such photographs, should be forwarded to the 

 Pieventive ^[edicine Division (Code T'2), Bureau 

 of .Medicine and Surgery, Xavy Department, 

 "Washington, D.C. for inclusion in future editions 

 of this maninil. 



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