Chrysopelea
Encyclopedia
Chrysopelea, or more commonly known as the flying snake, is a genus
that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snake
s are mildly venomous, though they are considered harmless because their toxicity is not dangerous to humans. Their range is in Southeast Asia
(the mainland, Greater and Lesser Sundas, Maluku
, and the Philippines
), southernmost China
, India
, and Sri Lanka
.
surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree's branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch's end. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to travel to control its flight path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its stomach, flaring out its ribs to turn its body in a "pseudo concave wing" all the while making a continual serpentine
motion of lateral undulation parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely.
The combination of sucking in its stomach and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge terrestrial bounded predators. The concave wing that a snake creates in sucking its stomach, flattens its body to up to twice its width from back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee
or flying disc. When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly
. A snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide. Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrel
s and other gliding animals
, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m. Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics
; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.
Their ability to glide has been an object of interest for physicists
and the United States Department of Defense
in recent years, and studies continue to be made on what other, more subtle, factors contribute to their flight. According to recent research conducted by the University of Chicago
, scientists discovered a correlation between size and gliding ability, in which smaller flying snakes were able to glide longer distances horizontally.
s.
n archipelago. Knowledge of their behavior in the wild is limited, but they are thought to be highly arboreal, rarely descending from the canopy. The smallest species reach about 2 feet (61 centimeters) in length and the largest grow to 4 feet (1.2 meters).
Their diets are variable depending on their range, but they are known to eat rodents, lizards, frogs, birds, and bats. They are mildly venomous snakes, but their tiny, fixed rear fangs make them harmless to humans.
Golden tree snake or ornate flying snake, Chrysopelea ornata
(Shaw
, 1802): This is the largest species of flying snake, reaching up to four feet in length. Though it is called the golden tree snake, there are other colour variations; for example, some phases tend to lean towards lime green in colour rather than pure yellow, while in India, the it has orange to red markings and small black bars on the dorsum, almost as rich in colouration as the paradise tree snake. Due to their size, their gliding ability is considered weak.
Paradise tree snake, Chrysopelea paradisi
Boie
& Boie
, 1827: This flying snake species reaches up to three feet in length and is popular in the European pet trade. Their bodies are black, but covered in rich green scales. Clusters of red, orange and yellow-coloured scales in the shape of flower petals line the dorsal area from the base of the neck to the tail. This is the most well known colouration, but some specimens may exhibit fully green colouration without any bright dorsal markings. Their gliding ability is considered one of the best among the flying snakes.
Twin-barred tree snake or banded flying snake, Chrysopelea pelias (Linnaeus
, 1758): This is the smallest flying snake species, reaching up to two feet in length. Its base colour is black or dark grey, and the entire body is covered with thick red and thin yellow with black bands. They also have cream-coloured ventrolateral lines, while the ventrals are pale green. While it is tiny, it is undoubtedly one of the rarest flying snake species within its range. Although it is able to move horizontally through the air when gliding, it does not glide as well as C. paradisi.
Lesser studied species
are:
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s are mildly venomous, though they are considered harmless because their toxicity is not dangerous to humans. Their range is in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
(the mainland, Greater and Lesser Sundas, Maluku
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
, and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
), southernmost China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.
Gliders
Chrysopelea is also known under its assigned common name "flying snake". It glides by using its ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough barkBark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree's branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch's end. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to travel to control its flight path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its stomach, flaring out its ribs to turn its body in a "pseudo concave wing" all the while making a continual serpentine
Serpentine shape
Serpentine refers to the curved shape of an object or design which resembles the letter s, a sine wave or a snake; the latter is the derivation of the term.- Examples :* The Serpentine River...
motion of lateral undulation parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely.
The combination of sucking in its stomach and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge terrestrial bounded predators. The concave wing that a snake creates in sucking its stomach, flattens its body to up to twice its width from back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee
Frisbee
A flying disc is a disc-shaped glider that is generally plastic and roughly in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating....
or flying disc. When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly
Flight
Flight is the process by which an object moves either through an atmosphere or beyond it by generating lift or propulsive thrust, or aerostatically using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
. A snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide. Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrel
Flying squirrel
Flying squirrels, scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini, are a tribe of 44 species of squirrels .- Description :...
s and other gliding animals
Flying and gliding animals
A number of animals have evolved aerial locomotion, either by powered flight or by gliding. Flying and gliding animals have evolved separately many times, without any single ancestor. Flight has evolved at least four times, in the insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats. Gliding has evolved on many...
, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m. Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics
Ballistics
Ballistics is the science of mechanics that deals with the flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles, especially bullets, gravity bombs, rockets, or the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.A ballistic body is a body which is...
; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.
Their ability to glide has been an object of interest for physicists
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
in recent years, and studies continue to be made on what other, more subtle, factors contribute to their flight. According to recent research conducted by the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, scientists discovered a correlation between size and gliding ability, in which smaller flying snakes were able to glide longer distances horizontally.
Diet
Chrysopelea are diurnal so they hunt during the day. Prey includes lizards, frogs, birds and batBat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s.
Species
There are five recognized species of flying snake, found from western India to the IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n archipelago. Knowledge of their behavior in the wild is limited, but they are thought to be highly arboreal, rarely descending from the canopy. The smallest species reach about 2 feet (61 centimeters) in length and the largest grow to 4 feet (1.2 meters).
Their diets are variable depending on their range, but they are known to eat rodents, lizards, frogs, birds, and bats. They are mildly venomous snakes, but their tiny, fixed rear fangs make them harmless to humans.
Golden tree snake or ornate flying snake, Chrysopelea ornata
Chrysopelea ornata
Chrysopelea ornata is a colubrid snake found in South and Southeast Asia. It is, along with the other species in its genus Chrysopelea, very unusual in that it is capable of a type of gliding flight. It is also rear-fanged. Currently, three subspecies are recognized, including the typical form...
(Shaw
George Shaw
George Shaw was an English botanist and zoologist.Shaw was born at Bierton, Buckinghamshire and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, receiving his M.A. in 1772. He took up the profession of medical practitioner. In 1786 he became the assistant lecturer in botany at Oxford University...
, 1802): This is the largest species of flying snake, reaching up to four feet in length. Though it is called the golden tree snake, there are other colour variations; for example, some phases tend to lean towards lime green in colour rather than pure yellow, while in India, the it has orange to red markings and small black bars on the dorsum, almost as rich in colouration as the paradise tree snake. Due to their size, their gliding ability is considered weak.
Paradise tree snake, Chrysopelea paradisi
Chrysopelea paradisi
Paradise Tree Snake or Paradise Flying Snake Chrysopelea paradisi is a species of snake found in Asia. It can, like all species of its genus Chrysopelea, glide by stretching the body into a flattened strip using its ribs. It is mostly found in moist forests and can cover a horizontal distance of...
Boie
Friedrich Boie
Friedrich Boie was a German scientist and brother of Heinrich Boie. He was born at Meldorf in Holstein and died at Kiel....
& Boie
Heinrich Boie
Heinrich Boie was a German zoologist. He was the brother of Friedrich Boie. In the field of herpetology they described 49 new species of reptiles and several new species of amphibians....
, 1827: This flying snake species reaches up to three feet in length and is popular in the European pet trade. Their bodies are black, but covered in rich green scales. Clusters of red, orange and yellow-coloured scales in the shape of flower petals line the dorsal area from the base of the neck to the tail. This is the most well known colouration, but some specimens may exhibit fully green colouration without any bright dorsal markings. Their gliding ability is considered one of the best among the flying snakes.
Twin-barred tree snake or banded flying snake, Chrysopelea pelias (Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, 1758): This is the smallest flying snake species, reaching up to two feet in length. Its base colour is black or dark grey, and the entire body is covered with thick red and thin yellow with black bands. They also have cream-coloured ventrolateral lines, while the ventrals are pale green. While it is tiny, it is undoubtedly one of the rarest flying snake species within its range. Although it is able to move horizontally through the air when gliding, it does not glide as well as C. paradisi.
Lesser studied species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
are:
- Moluccan flying snake, Chrysopelea rhodopleuron BoieHeinrich BoieHeinrich Boie was a German zoologist. He was the brother of Friedrich Boie. In the field of herpetology they described 49 new species of reptiles and several new species of amphibians....
, 1827: From AmbonAmbon IslandAmbon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of , and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of 2 territories: The main city and seaport is Ambon , which is also the capital of Maluku province and Maluku Tengah Ambon Island is part of the...
and SulawesiSulawesiSulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
in Indonesia. - Sri Lankan flying snake, Chrysopelea taprobanica Smith, 1943: From Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.