''Ninia atrata'', known
commonly as Hallowell's coffee snake, Hallowell's earth snake, the red-nape snake, and the South American coffee snake, is a
species of small terrestrial
snake in 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 ...
. The species is native to southern
Central America and northern
South America.
Geographic range
''N. atrata'' is found in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
,
Ecuador,
Panama,
Trinidad and Tobago, and
Venezuela.
[ www.reptile-database.org.]
Habitat
The preferred natural
habitats of ''N. atrata'' are
forest and
savanna, at altitudes from sea level to .
[
]
Diet
''N. atrata'' is believed to feed on insect larvae, termites and slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...
s.[https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Ninia_atrata%20-%20Coffee%20Snake.pdf ]
Reproduction
''N. atrata'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Angarita-Sierra T (2017). "Ninia atrata ''(Hallowell 1845), Viejita''". ''Catálogo de anfibios y reptiles de Colombia'' 3 (2): 30–37. (in Spanish).
* Freiberg M (1982). ''Snakes of South America''. Hong Kong: T.F.H. Publications. 189 pp. . (''Ninia atrata'', p. 104).
* Hallowell E (1845). "Description of Reptiles from South America, supposed to be new". ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 2: 241–247. (''Coluber atratus'', new species, pp. 245–246).
* La Marca E, Esqueda LF, Manzanilla J (2004). " eographic Distribution:''Ninia atrata'' (Hallowell's Earth Snake; ''Culebra de Tierra''; ''Viejita'')". ''Herpetological Review'' 35 (2): 192.
*https://serpientesdevenezuela.org/ninia-atrata/
Colubrids
Reptiles of Trinidad and Tobago
Reptiles of Panama
Reptiles of Venezuela
Ninia
Taxa named by Edward Hallowell (herpetologist)
Reptiles described in 1848
{{Colubrids-stub