''Natrix'' is a
genus of
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
snakes found across Eurasia (although the range of ''
Natrix tessellata'' extends into Egypt and those of ''
N. astreptophora'' and ''
N. maura'' into north-west Africa) in the
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
Natricinae of the
family Colubridae
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 ever ...
.
Common names
Member
species of the genus ''Natrix'' are collectively called grass snakes and water snakes, but some other snake species also known
commonly as "grass snakes" and "water snakes" are not in the genus.
Species
The genus ''Natrix'' contains five extant species and at least five extinct (
fossil-only) species.
''
Nota bene'': A
binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Natrix''.
Etymology
''Natrix'' is classical
Latin for a water snake. The word comes from a
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "snake", with cognates in the
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
and
Germanic languages, the latter including the English
adder
Adder may refer to:
* AA-12 Adder, a Russian air-to-air missile
* Adder (electronics), an electronic circuit designed to do addition
* Adder Technology, a manufacturing company
* Armstrong Siddeley Adder, a late 1940s British turbojet engine
* ''B ...
. It was probably influenced through
folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
by the Latin ''nare'' and ''natare'' meaning "swim"; it appears to be a grammatically feminine word for "swimmer".
Geography
The refuge of a widely distributed Western European lineage regarding the
barred grass snake commonly known as ''Natrix helvetica ''was most likely located in southern France and outside the classical refuges in the southern European peninsulas. One genetic lineage of the
common grass snake (''N. natrix'') is also distributed in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and the Balkan Peninsula.
References
Further reading
*
Laurenti JN (1768). ''Specimen medicum, exhibens synopsin reptilium emendatam cum experimentis circa venena et antidota reptilium austriacorum''. Vienna: "Joan. Thom. Nob. de Trattnern". 214 pp. + Plates I-V. (''Natrix'', new genus, p. 73). (in Latin).
Snake genera
Taxa named by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti
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