''Grayia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s, commonly referred to as

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n water snakes, in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Colubridae. The genus, which is native to tropical

, is the only genus in the

colubrid Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ev ...

subfamily Grayiinae. ''Grayia''

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are relatively poorly known snakes, at least to herpetologists. Although they are locally abundant, they are notoriously difficult to catch, and occur in areas where field work is difficult. They inhabit seasonal rainforest swamps, streams, and permanent water bodies, eat fish and frogs, and lay eggs in the leaf litter among humid enclosures formed by buttress roots during the dry season. They are unusual in that they deposit their clutch in small batches of three or four eggs at different times at more than one nest site, rather than laying all the eggs at once, a strategy used by some turtles to avoid nest predation, but otherwise undocumented in snakes. At least one species, ''G. ornata'', is used for food and in medicine by people in Gabon, and evidently is known to them to be nonvenomous; a person who has been bitten by a ''Grayia'' snake is believed to be protected for life against bites from other snakes.

Description

The snakes primely come in very dark colors as to blend in with the forest ground and water. They are medium to large (1-1.5m) snakes, and the tail is 30% or more of the total length, depending on the species.

Etymology

The generic name, ''Grayia'', is in honor of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and rep ...

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Grayia'', p. 107; ''G. smythii'', p. 247; ''G. tholloni'', p. 265). who coined many commonly used generic names. The specific name ''smythii'' is in honor of Norwegian botanist

Christen Smith Christen Smith (17 October 1785 – 22 September 1816) was an early 19th-century Norwegian physician, economist and naturalist, particularly botanist. He died, only 30 years old during a dramatic expedition to the Congo River in 1816, leaving a ...

. The specific name ''tholloni'' is in honor of François-Romain Thollon (1855–1896), who was a French collector of natural history specimens in Africa.

Species

These four species are recognized as being valid: www.reptile-database.org. *'' Grayia caesar'' – Caesar's African water snake *'' Grayia ornata'' – ornate African water snake *'' Grayia smythii'' – Smith's African water snake *'' Grayia tholloni'' – Thollon's African water snake ''

Nota bene (, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well". It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atten ...

'': A

binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Grayia''.

Description

Etymology

Species

References

Further reading