Naja ashei
Encyclopedia
Naja ashei is an Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n 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...

. It is the world's largest species of spitting cobra
Spitting cobra
A spitting cobra is one of several species of cobras that have the ability to eject venom from their fangs when defending themselves against predators. The sprayed venom is harmless to intact skin...

 It is found in the dry lowlands of northern and eastern Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 and similar habitats in northeastern Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

, southern Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 and southern Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

.

Its differences to other spitting cobras were realized in the 1960s, but the species was initially regarded by most merely as a brown-colored form of the Black-necked Spitting Cobra (N. nigricollis
Naja nigricollis
Naja nigricollis is a species of spitting cobra found in Sub Saharan Africa. It is feared throughout its range and has the capability of spraying venom at attackers as a defensive mechanism...

). Thus, N. ashei was only classified as a distinct 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...

 in 2007, by Wolfgang Wüster
Wolfgang Wüster
Wolfgang Wüster is a herpetologist and lecturer in zoology at the University of Wales.Wüster attained his bachelor's degree at the University of Cambridge in 1985 and his doctorate at University of Aberdeen in 1990. His primary area of research is the systematics and ecology of venomous snakes...

 (Bangor University
Bangor University
Bangor University is a university based in the city of Bangor in the county of Gwynedd in North Wales-United Kingdom.It was officially known for most of its history as the University College of North Wales...

 Wales) and Donald Broadley (Biodiversity Foundation for Africa). Royjan Taylor (Director of the Bio-Ken Snake Farm
Snake farm
A snake farm refers to a Structure which houses and breeds a wide variety of snakes, often for the purpose of research and the collection of venom for the creation of antivenom. Many snake farms are primarily tourist attractions...

 in Watamu
Watamu
Watamu is a beach resort on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It lies on a small headland, between the Blue Lagoon and Watamu Bay. Its main industries are tourism and fishing...

, Kenya) was instrumental in providing specimens, among them the holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

. The specific epithet honors the late James Ashe, who founded the Bio-Ken Snake Farm and was one of the first experts to suggest that Naja ashei was a new species.

The Giant Spitting Cobra is most closely related to the Mozambique Spitting Cobra
Mozambique Spitting Cobra
The Mozambique Spitting Cobra is a type of cobra, native to Africa.-Description:In color the snake is slate to olive grey, olive or tawny brown above, with some or all scales black-edging...

 (N. mossambica) and together with this species forms a sister taxon to N. nigricollis.

Description

Naja ashei is a very large cobra that averages 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length, and the largest individual spitting cobras measured to date; 2.743 metres (9 ft) and 2.819 metres (9.2 ft), in length, probably belong to this species. Some N. nigricollis may also reach such sizes, but this is very exceptional, whereas on the Kenyan coast, N. ashei of more than 2 metres (6.6 ft) are not uncommon.

Very heavily built with big heads, their color varies in different shades of brown from light grey through pale mustard to dark brown. The snake is pale in color along the belly, sometimes with slight speckling or blotches, and has a dark brown throat band. It has 17 to 25 mid-body scale rows, 176 to 219 ventrals, 51 to 69 sub-caudals with an entire anal scale across the vent.

Toxicity

Venom from this snake is very similar to other spitting cobras including N. nigricollis and the Red Spitting Cobra
Red Spitting Cobra
The Red Spitting Cobra , is a species of spitting cobra native to Africa. This species is one of several spittings cobra in Africa. Spitting cobras do not spit their venom...

 (N. pallida) – both found in the same areas – but is produced in very large quantities by the new species. A single specimen milked at Bio-Ken Snake Farm in 2004 produced a wet venom yield of 6.2ml, weighing 7.1 g, and containing nearly 3 g of toxin
Toxin
A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...

s.

In absence of dedicated research, recommended treatment of bites is, as for all true cobras, with the appropriate antivenom (SAVP polyvalent from South African Vaccine Producers). The dosage may need to be higher than for the average N. nigricollis bite. First aid treatment for venom in the eyes is immediate irrigation with water or any bland liquid - failure to do so may result in permanent blindness. Whether bitten or spat at, the patient should be seen as soon as possible by a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

. There is no data suggesting that the new species' toxins differ clinically from those of other spitting cobras, except perhaps by the effects of greater dosages on average. Spitting cobra venom has rather low systemic toxicity - meaning that with appropriate treatment, survival of bitten persons is very likely - but a strong necrotizing
Necrosis
Necrosis is the premature death of cells in living tissue. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma. This is in contrast to apoptosis, which is a naturally occurring cause of cellular death...

 effect - meaning it kills tissue around the wound. This is the reason why if a successful spitting is not treated immediately, blindness (due to destruction of the cornea
Cornea
The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...

) is likely; even in patients treated with antivenom, amputation
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...

s may become necessary if they receive a full dose of a large spitting cobra's venom. For details, see snake venom
Snake venom
Snake venom is highly modified saliva that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The glands which secrete the zootoxin are a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and are usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye,...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK