Sinomicrurus sauteri

Elapidae, subfamily Elapinae

98 cm

South and central Taiwan, at altitudes of 500-1500 m. Very rare.

Endemic to Taiwan.

Small snake; total length is up to 98 cm. It has 13-15 rows of scales, which are smooth, glossy, and irridescent. Head is broadly rectangular to square and not distinct from neck; body is slim, round; tail is short and ends in a strongly chitinized, rigid tip. Eye is medium-sized; iris is dark gray to black and indistinct since it blends in with dark color of head; pupil is round, black. There are no loreals. Tongue is dull red to flesh-colored, with diffuse gray fork tips. Fangs are small and in anterior part of upper jaw. Upper head is dark brown to black, mottled with light brown in forehead; there is a broad cream or white band across head behind eyes. The supralabials are intermittently white, black, or mottled. Upper body is dark brown, crimson, and distinctly marked with three black longitudinal stripes from neck to tip of tail; the mid-dorsal stripe is narrower than the lateral ones. Ventral head and neck are white to dirty white, sometimes mottled with black. The infralabials bear distinct lines of black pigment at junction of anterior-most scales. Ventral body and tail are white to dirty white, with irregular size and irregularly distributed spots or cross bands of black. Anal scale is divided and subcaudals are paired.

Many field guides and standard works tend to dismiss the smaller elapids as of little concern. However, the complex nature of the venoms of these small snakes, and higher venom yields than anticipated, underscores the fundamental consideration that even lesser-known, small species may still be capable of clinically significant envenomings after exceptional bites in which a larger than usual quantity of venom is injected. Lethal evenomations have already occurred with other small elapids thought to be harmless, such as the tragic death of Hans Schnurrenberger by a 30 cm Sinomicrurus macclellandi; the initial bite was ignored until neurotoxic symptoms showed up 6 hours later, and death was 8 hours after envenomation. (B. G. Fry et al., 2003).

The Chinese name 梭德氏帶紋赤蛇 (suo1de2shi4dai4wen2chi4she2) means "Sauter's (梭德氏) Striped (帶紋) Red Snake (赤蛇)".

However, the validity of this species is questionable. Slowinski et al. (2001, see below) found no differences on morphological data (of skull, hemipenes, venoms, etc.) between it and S. sauteri; the numbers of ventrals in these two species may overlap (according to data from Ota et al., 1999). In addition, individuals of this species with less distinct black bars along the mid-dorsal stripe have been found.