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As a result of working on the doll story with the reptilian aspects, I have been poking about Wikipedia in search of info on back-fang vipers.
It is not a grouping of related animals.
It seems that style of envenomation is often more of a life-style choice, and not all of the relatives have decided to join in on it.
Twigsnakes, gaboon vipers, and boomslangs around Durban, South Africa, are the most obvious examples of highly poisonous back-fang vipers who are a lot less dangerous than cottonmouths or rattlesnakes, as they run away from humans and don’t bite large animals like humans as effectively as the front-fang animals.
https://www.answers.com/topic/colubrids-colubridae-biological-family notes this:
…Another subfamily with many northern representatives is the Colubrinae, with over 100 genera and roughly 650 species…
…Worldwide in distribution, the Colubrinae include significant radiations in North America, Eurasia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Many are fast-moving terrestrial species, although arboreal and fossorial members are numerous. Many are rear-fanged, although others lack enlarged rear maxillary teeth and some have evolved constricting behavior. Among the more familiar groups are the North American racers (Coluber), kingsnakes (Lampropeltis), and ratsnakes (Elaphe). Other important members of the Colubrinae include a large group of tropical Asian burrowing snakes, including the reedsnakes (Calamaria) and related genera, and a group of African genera that include the dangerously venomous boomslang (Dispholidus) and twigsnake (Theletornis)….
…In addition to many small, burrowing species, the Colubrinae includes some giants among colubrids, such as the indigo snake (Drymarchon), tiger ratsnake (Spilotes), and bird snake (Pseustes) of the Americas, and the banded ratsnake (Ptyas) of Asia, which approaches or exceeds 10 ft (about 3 m) in length.
[So I started looking up the larger Colubrinae. We will return to that in a moment.]
They continue with physical characteristics, thus:
..One important feature that distinguishes most colubrids is the presence of Duvernoy’s glands, a pair of glands located on either side of the head behind the eye. These are the homologues (the evolutionary counterparts) of the venom glands of vipers, elapids, and Atractaspis. Although they are often described as modified salivary glands, they in fact are very different in both their tissue characteristics and their origin. The Duvernoy’s glands are associated with the rear teeth of the maxillary bones, the major toothed bones of the upper jaws, and they secrete a complex mix of chemicals whose composition is still poorly understood. In some colubrids the secretion is known to serve as a slow-acting venom or as a digestive adjunct. The rear pair of maxillary teeth are often modified to assist with the delivery of secretion from Duvernoy’s glands, and may be either enlarged, grooved, or both. That is generally known as the rear-fanged, or ophisthoglyphous, condition, although a variety of terms has been applied to specific conditions of the rear teeth. In most cases the secretion of Duvernoy’s gland has no apparent effect on humans, but in some species it can cause local swelling. A few taxa, including the boomslang (Dispholidus) and twigsnake (Theletornis) of Africa and the Yamakagashi (Rhabdophis) of Asia, are capable of delivering a lethal bite to humans. The xenodontine genera Apostolepis and Elapomorphus resemble some aparallactine atractaspidids in approaching the front-fanged condition of elapid snakes, with large Duvernoy’s glands and few teeth preceding the greatly enlarged rear fangs. Although Duvernoy’s gland is found, to some degree, in most colubrids, it is not universally present. In some colubrids it may have been lost as a consequence of the evolution of constricting behavior, which constitutes an alternative mechanism for immobilizing prey…
…Although most species are too small to be useful as leather, a few colubrids are exploited in the skin trade, including the large Asian ratsnakes (Ptyas). Recently a large trade in aquatic colubrids of the subfamily Homalopsinae has been documented in Cambodia, and much of that trade involves the preparation of skins for leather. In addition, however, snakes are used as food for humans and are also fed to farm-raised crocodiles that are in turn used for leather. The magnitude of the trade was enormous, with an estimated 4,000–8,500 snakes per day traded at one port during peak periods. That catch is likely to be unsustainable…
Poking around on Wikipedia, the written description of the indigo snake (such as a Texas Indigo snake) is pretty amazing, but I haven’t found pix as yet.
The banded ratsnake at ten feet would look…astonishing. However, I don’t know as yet what its teeth are like. I don’t know if it is back-fang viper, or merely related to things like the boomslangs, which are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptyas_nigromarginatus
notes:
…Green Rat Snake Ptyas nigromarginatus is a species of snake. Distribution: Nepal, India (Darjelling, Sikkim, Assam), N Myanmar (= Burma), N Vietnam ? China (Guizhou, Yunnan, SW Sichuan, SE Xizang = Tibet)…
You may find it amusing, as I did, to note where it is found.
The Wiki entry also has some further links to some amazing pix.
Here’s one:
This is far more inventive and astonishing than anything I had in mind.
This looks like the “Yes” album cover artist Roger Dean painted it.
It’s also intriguing to find, when I truncated the website address on that picture, to find it goes to a website by a lab which studies proteomics. Protein synthesis. Also, venom.
Isn’t research fun?
However, I wouldn’t advise trying to keep something this gorgeously rare without a lot of prior experience.
I understand the Asian ratsnakes have a survival rate on the order of 5% from imported snakes. If you want one, you will lose roughly 80 -100 of them trying to get a survivor. Whether you killed it, or the stress of the collection and import process did, is anybody’s guess.
Not good odds–and I’m used to the mayfly-like rates on things like tiny baby cardinal tetras.
Darn, I’m not finding much information at all on the green ratsnake’s biology.
There’s a good forum on ratsnakes which discusses related ones.
This entry (on a species in the same genus) has some fascinating tidbits to it.
https://www.ratsnakefoundation.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1673&forum=27
…This species is only venemous in terms of personality. I have had in the region of 500+ bites from several animals of this species with no other effects than residual blocking (ie i was shielding myself from bites long after the animal had stopped!!)
They are very fast both in general movement and in attacks with several bites lumped together in groups. They aren’t “chewers”, prefering to bite 3 or 4 times in what sees to be very little time.
They are most definately visual predators, incredibly aware of any movements around them. As a result of this they can be a pain to acclimatise when adult, the younger the better with them. This also effects feeding with the majority prefering to eat alone although as they are generally quite accepting of defrost rodents this isn’t a problem.
I have found that treating for parasites is not something i would try to do initially, if at all. There is a real concern that septicemia through this process will, more often than not, be too much for the animal to cope with.
I would advise that they are NOT treated with drugs unless absolutely neccesary.
They are generally quite stressed out creatures through a combination of visual overload and parasites. I would advise covering any viv/rack tub and leaving the animal to settle in for atleast 7-10 days. I know this is “standard procedure” but it really must be adhered to with these just so they calm down…
ETA: From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptyas_nigromarginatus
Green Rat Snake Ptyas nigromarginatus is a species of snake. Distribution: Nepal, India (Darjelling, Sikkim, Assam), N Myanmar (= Burma), N Vietnam ? China (Guizhou, Yunnan, SW Sichuan, SE Xizang = Tibet)
These pix gives you a clearer idea of things like the shake of the scales. Most of these scales appear not to have keels, but they are tehre, if you look at the spine of the lighter green snake in th3rd of these pix. Keels were noted in the story.