The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Coluber

(European whip snakes), a genus of snakes of the family Colubridae. The body reaches 2.4 m long. The upper part of the body is usually of one color; sometimes it has dark stripes and spots. The underside is lighter in color. The young snakes are usually of a different color than the adults.

There are about 30 species, distributed in southern Europe, Asia, northern and eastern Africa, and North and Central America. The USSR has six species: C. rhodorhachis, C. karelini, and C. spinalis are found in Middle Asia and Kazakhstan; C. ravergieri and C. najadum inhabit Middle Asia and the Caucasus; and C. jugularis is encountered in the European USSR, the Caucasus, and southern Turkmenia. The snakes inhabit steppes, semideserts, deserts, and forested plains and mountains. C. ravergieri lives at elevations to 2,500 m.

European whip snakes are very mobile. They feed predominantly on murids, lizards, fledglings, and small birds. The young feed on insects. Most species catch their prey with their teeth and then squeeze it with the body rings or press it against the ground. The snakes are all egg layers, with the female depositing as many as 25 eggs. The bite of Coluber, like those of other snakes in this family, is not dangerous to humans but may be painful.

I. S. DAREVSKII

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

A) Coluber flagellum piceus; B) Coluber lateralis; C) Crotalus ruber; D) Crotalus oreganus helleri; E) Arizona elegans occidentalis, standard morph (with food bolus at midbody); F) A.

Rare alluvial sands of El Monte Valley, California (San Diego county), support high herpetofaunal species richness and diversity, despite severe habitat disturbance

Smith (1943) considered several currently valid genera such as Argyrogena Werner, 1924, Platyceps Blyth, 1860 and Spalerosophis Jan, 1865 to be synonyms of Coluber Linnaeus, 1758 s.l.

New locality records of Nagarjun Sagar racer snake, Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976/Nuevos registros de localidad para la serpiente corredora Coluber bholanathi Sharma, 1976

23.32 ("Sed in nouissimo mordebit ut coluber, et sicut regulus venena diffundet)"; or recall 4m3.35-39, the concluding lines of the "Circe" meter ("Haec venena potentius / Detrahunt hominem sibi / Dira quae penitus meant / Nec nocentia corpori / Mentis vulnere saeviunt").

Gower's beast allegories in the 1381 Visio Anglie

ventromaculatus (sensu Schatti and Schmitz 2006, formerly named Coluber ventromaculatus) was observed by Simon Aspinall and Andrew Haig on the island of Sir Bani Yas, western Abu Dhabi.

Snakes alive: Gray's racer snake Platyceps cf. ventromaculatus, (Gray 1834) sensu Schatti and Schmitz 2006, on Sir Bani Yas and Dalma islands

Elgaria sp., alligator lizard -- 2 -- Boidae Charina bottae, rubber boa x -- -- Charina sp., boa -- -- 1 Colubridae Colubridae genus et species unidentified -- 5 9 Coluber constrictor, racer x -- -- Contia tenuis, sharp-tailed snake x -- -- Diadophis punctatus, ring-necked snake x -- -- Diadophis/Tantilla -- 1 -- Hypsiglena torquata, night snake x -- -- Lampropeltis getula, common kingsnake x -- -- L.

A mid-Holocene fauna from Bear Den Cave, Sequoia National Park, California

Four months after the restoration activities were completed, Bay 5071 was visited and three live snakes--two black racers, Coluber constrictor and one corn snake, Elaphe guttata--were observed entangled in the blanket.

Do erosion control and snakes mesh?

Coluber constrictor foxii (Baird and Girard, 1853), Blue Racer (I, II, III)

Herpetological assemblages of the Michigan Regional Landscape Ecosystems

The researchers let females in outdoor cages see a tethered southern black racer (Coluber constrictor priapus).

The social lives of snakes: from loner to attentive parent

Post-burn transect searches of the site revealed one yellow-bellied racer (Coluber constrictor) mortality due to the fire.

Potential effects of mowing prior to summer burning on the Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus c. catenatus) at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Holt County, Missouri, USA

Higher up the forest trophic chain, there are a number of raptors such as the tawny owl (Strix aluco), buzzard (Buteo buteo), sparrowhawk (Accipter nisus), and booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus), as well as the horseshoe snake (Coluber hippocrepis).

4 Protected areas and biosphere reserves in the sclerophyllous formations

These species were Bufo quercicus (oak toad), Bufo terrestris (southern toad), Gastrophryne carolinensis (narrow-mouth toad), Gopherus polyphemus (gopher tortoise), Anolis carolinensis (green anole), Cnemidophorus sexlineatus (six-lined racerunner), Eumeces egregius (mole skink), Eumeces inexpectatus (southeastern five-lined skink), Neoseps reynoldsi (sand skink), Sceloporus woodi (Florida scrub lizard), Cemophora coccinea (Florida scarlet snake), Coluber constrictor (southern black racer), Masticophis flagellum (eastern coachwhip), Tantilla relicta (crowned snake), Aphelocoma coerulescens (Florida Scrub Jay), Cryptotis parva (least shrew), Peromyscus polionotus (oldfield mouse), and Podomys fioridanus (Florida mouse).

HABITAT FRAGMENTATION AND THE ABUNDANCES OF VERTEBRATES IN THE FLORIDA SCRUB