''Walterinnesia aegyptia'', also known as the desert cobra or desert black snake, is a species of

venomous snake Venomous snakes are species of the suborder Serpentes that are capable of producing venom, which they use for killing prey, for defense, and to assist with digestion of their prey. The venom is typically delivered by injection using hollow or g ...

s 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 ...

Elapidae Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids ; grc, ἔλλοψ ''éllops'' "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus Emydoce ...

that is native to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. The

specific epithet 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, bo ...

''aegyptia'' (“of Egypt”) refers to part of its geographic range.

Description and behaviour

(See the article on the genus at ''

Walterinnesia ''Walterinnesia'' is a genus of venomous snakes in the family Elapidae. The genus contains two species, known commonly as desert black snakes or black desert cobras, which are endemic to the Middle East."''Walterinnesia'' ". ITIS (Integrated Ta ...

'')

Distribution

The range of the species encompasses southern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, north-western

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

, western

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

’s

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a ...

and possibly

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

. The type locality is

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

, where the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

was purchased.

Venom

The desert cobra is highly venomous. The subcutaneous for the venom of ''W. aegyptia'' is 0.4 mg/kg. For comparison, the

Indian cobra The Indian cobra (''Naja naja''), also known as the spectacled cobra, Asian cobra, or binocellate cobra, is a species of cobra found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, and a member of the "big four" species that are ...

's (''Naja naja'') subcutaneous is 0.80 mg/kg, while the

Cape cobra The Cape cobra (''Naja nivea''), also called the yellow cobra, is a moderate-sized, highly venomous species of cobra inhabiting a wide variety of biomes across southern Africa including arid savanna, fynbos, bushveld, desert and semi-desert reg ...

's (''Naja nivea'') subcutaneous is 0.72 mg/kg. This makes the desert black snake a more venomous snake than both. Venom toxins of the desert cobra are similar to those of the king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah''), indicating a close relationship. Like many elapid snakes, the venom is primarily neurotoxic and the effects of envenenomation are due to systemic circulation of the toxins rather than from local effects on tissue near the site of injection.Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson J, Loscalzo J (editors) (2012). ''Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18th Edition''. New York: McGraw-Hill. 4,012 pp. .

References

aegyptia Reptiles of the Middle East Taxa named by Fernand Lataste Reptiles described in 1887 {{Elapidae-stub