Carib Coral Snake

The Carib coral snake is limited mainly to northern South America & some Caribbean islands (including Trinidad).

Carib Coral Snake (Micrurus psyches)

Order: Squamata
Family: Elapidae (fixed front- fang venomous snakes)
Other common names: Duaden's coral snake, Carib coral snake, blakka drarasneki, cobra-coral, corail, culebra de corbata, coral morada, serpent-corail, kuwasakala, kraalslang, krarasneke, blakka kraka sneki

Distinguishing Features

Small to medium sized 3 colored coral snake, adults usually 55 to 70 cm (max. 91 cm). Appearance extremely variable; dorsally melanized red rings may make specimens look entirely black, essentially looking bicolored (i.e., black, with a series of very narrow to narrow whitish or yellowish rings), or 3 -colored [broad red rings, alternating with 22-41 narrower black rings each bordered by very thin white rings (rwbwr)]. Tail with 5 to 10 black rings.

Geographical Range

Limited mainly to northern South America and some Caribbean islands (including Trinidad).

Habitat

Most common in lower montane wet forest and lowland rainforest; occurs from near sea level to 500 m elevation.

Life History

Often active during daytime on forest floor. Mainly terrestrial, commonly burrows in loose soil and forest floor litter. Most species of coral snakes not usually aggressive, are oviparous (with small numbers of eggs in a clutch), and prey on locally available other snakes, lizards, frogs and invertebrates.

Comments

Not much known. Most species of coral snakes have highly potent, mainly neurotoxic venom, which can be injected through a pair of grooved, fixed, upper front fangs. Due to their small mouths, coral snake bites to humans usually occur on fingers or toes, and usually during attempts to capture or molest the snake.