Elapidae

Yellow-lipped sea krait Laticauda colubrina, from here.

Belongs within: Colubroidea.
Contains: Hydrophiinae.

The Elapidae are a pantropical family of venomous snakes, characterised by permanently erect, hollow fangs in the front of the maxilla that fit into slots on the floor of the buccal cavity when the mouth is closed (Grismer 2002). Prominent members of the Elapidae include the cobras (Naja), coral snakes (Micrurus) and the Australian venomous snakes. They also include the sea snakes, belonging to two independent lineages: the true sea snakes (Hydrophiinae) and the sea kraits (Laticauda), which return to land to lay their eggs.

<==Elapidae
    |--+--Bungarus fasciatus VH02
    |  `--+--Pelamis platurus VH02
    |     |--Dendroaspis angusticeps VH02
    |     |--Elapsoidea semiannulata VH02
    |     `--Laticauda VH02
    |          |--L. colubrina (Schneider 1799) N10
    |          |--L. crockeri Slevin 1934 N10
    |          |--L. frontalis De Vis 1905 N10
    |          |--L. laticaudata (Linnaeus 1758) N10
    |          |--L. schistorhynchus (Günther 1874) N10
    |          `--L. semifasciata (Reinwardt in Schlegel 1837 N10
    `--Micrurus Wagler 1824 VH02, RB05 [incl. Leptomicrurus DS86]
         |--M. collaris DS86
         |--M. diastema VK00
         |--M. filiformis DS86
         |    |--M. f. filiformis DS86
         |    `--M. f. subtilis DS86
         |--M. frontalis BS00
         |--M. fulvius JP79
         |--M. gallicus Rage & Holman 1984 RB05
         |--M. hemprichii DS86
         |    |--M. h. hemprichii DS86
         |    `--M. h. ortoni DS86
         |--M. langsdorffi DS86
         |--M. lemniscatus V-MR04
         |    |--M. l. lemniscatus V-MR04
         |    |--M. l. diutus Burger 1955 V-MR04
         |    `--M. l. helleri DS86
         |--M. mertensi C07
         |--M. narducci [incl. M. karlschmidti] DS86
         |--M. peruvianus C07
         |--M. putumayensis DS86
         |--M. spixii DS86
         |    |--M. s. spixii DS86
         |    `--M. s. obscurus DS86
         `--M. surinamensis VH02

Elapidae incertae sedis:
  Brachyurophis ADD08
    |--B. approximans ADD08
    |--B. fasciolata ADD08
    `--B. semifasciata ADD08
  Demansia ADD08
    |--D. calodera ADD08
    |--D. nuchalis G54
    |    |--D. n. nuchalis G54
    |    `--D. n. affinis G54
    |--D. psammophis ADD08
    |    |--D. p. psammophis ADD08
    |    |--D. p. cupreiceps ADD08
    |    `--D. p. reticulata ADD08
    `--D. textilis F13
  Parasuta monachus ADD08
  Pseudonaja ADD08
    |--P. modesta ADD08
    `--P. nuchalis ADD08
  Simoselaps ADD08
    |--S. bertholdi ADD08
    `--S. littoralis (Storr 1968) ADD08
  Suta ADD08
    |--S. fasciata ADD08
    `--S. punctata HD04
  Acanthophis HD04
    |--A. antarcticus G54
    `--A. wellsi HD04
  Furina ornata ADD08
  Pseudechis ADD08
    |--P. australis F13
    |--P. mortonensis F13
    `--P. porphyriacus BS00
  Elaps [Elapinae] C07
    |--E. regularis [incl. Micrurus annellatus] C07
    `--E. simonsii [incl. Micrurus pyrrhocryptus] C07
  Naja Laurenti 1768 B89
  Palaeonaja B89
  Hydrophiinae N10
  Ophiophagus hannah JWC07
  Neelaps ADD08
    |--N. bimaculatus (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril 1854) DH08
    `--N. calonotus [=Furina calonota; incl. N. caledonicus, N. neocaledonicus] R13

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[ADD08] Aplin, K., S. Donnellan & J. Dell. 2008. The herpetofauna of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 39-53.

[B89] Bailon, S. 1989. Les amphibiens et les reptiles du Pliocene superieur de Balaruc II (Herault, France). Palaeovertebrata 19 (1): 7-28.

[BS00] Borges, M. H., A. M. Soares, V. M. Rodrigues, S. H. Andrião-Escarso, H. Diniz, A. Hamaguchi, A. Quintero, S. Lizano, J. M. Gutiérrez, J. R. Giglio & M. I. Homsi-Brandeburgo. 2000. Effects of aqueous extract of Casearia sylvestris (Flacourtiaceae) on actions of snake and bee venoms and on activity of phospholipases A2. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 127B: 21-30.

[C07] Cadle, J. E. 2007. The snake genus Sibynomorphus (Colubridae: Dipsadinae: Dipsadini) in Peru and Ecuador, with comments on the systematics of Dipsadini. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 158 (5): 183-284.

[DS86] Dixon, J. R. & P. Soini. 1986. The Reptiles of the Upper Amazon Basin, Iquitos Region, Peru. Milwaukee Public Museum: Milwaukee.

[DH08] Doughty, P., & M. N. Hutchinson. 2008. A new species of Lucasium (Squamata: Diplodactylidae) from the southern deserts of Western Australia and South Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 25 (1): 95-106.

[F13] Fry, D. B. 1913. On a Varanus and a frog from Burnett River, Queensland, and a revision of the variations in Limnodynastes dorsalis, Gray. Records of the Australian Museum 10 (2): 17-34, plates I-III.

[G54] Glauert, L. 1954. Reptiles and frogs. In The Archipelago of the Recherche (J. H. Willis, ed.) pp. 29-35. Australian Geographical Society: Melbourne.

Grismer, L. L. 2002. Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California, including its Pacific islands, and the islands in the Sea of Cortés. University of California Press.

[HD04] How, R. A., & J. Dell. 2004. Reptile assemblage of the Abydos Plain, north-eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 85-95.

[JP79] Jackson, J. F. & J. A. Pounds. 1979. Comments on assessing the dedifferentiating effect of gene flow. Systematic Zoology 28 (1): 78-85.

[JWC07] Jenkins, F. A., Jr., D. M. Walsh & R. L. Carroll. 2007. Anatomy of Eocaecilia micropodia, a limbed caecilian of the Early Jurassic. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 158 (6): 285-366.

[N10] Naish, D. 2010. Tetrapod Zoology: Book One. CFZ Press: Bideford (UK).

[RB05] Rage, J.-C., & S. Bailon. 2005. Amphibians and squamate reptiles from the late early Miocene (MN 4) of Béon 1 (Montréal-du-Gers, southwestern France). Geodiversitas 27 (3): 413-441.

[R13] Roux, J. 1913. Les reptiles de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et des îles Loyalty. In Nova Caledonia: Forschungen in Neu-Caledonian und auf den Loyalty-Inseln. A. Zoologie vol. 1, Heft II (F. Sarasin & J. Roux, eds) pp. 79-160. C. W. Kreidels Verlag: Wiesbaden.

[VH02] Vidal, N., & S. B. Hedges. 2002. Higher-level relationships of caenophidian snakes inferred from four nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Comptes Rendus Biologies 325: 987-995.

[VK00] Vidal, N., S. G. Kindl, A. Wong & S. B. Hedges. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships of xenodontine snakes inferred from 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14: 389-402.

[V-MR04] Villarreal-Manzanilla, O., & C. J. Rodríguez. 2004. Descripción de una nueva especie y dos nuevos registros del género Stygnoplus (Opiliones, Stygnidae) para Venezuela. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 10: 179-184.