One is being alone in water deeper than a foot. Crocodiles are another. Sharks were, for a while, and it's not unreasonable to suppose that the cold dread I experience when I'm swimming in a murky creek without anyone to use as a human shield is because I watched Jaws well before I was old enough.
I'm scared of being trapped in a crowd - hearing more than a couple of simultaneous conversations nauseates me. I'm not comfortable sharing silence with strangers - when I was alone in a windowless lab with a lovely Welsh girl, working on my BSc dissertation study while she worked on her MRes, I was absolutely terrified of her until we broke our respective silences, and I knew that she wasn't just sitting there judging me and/or plotting to kill me somehow
I don't like having people in my blind spot, even if they are talking. I love cliff-top walks, but if I'm within four feet of the edge and I have my shoes on, I find it extremely difficult to step forward (as an aside, if I find myself within six or so feet of water that may contain a crocodile, I have quite the opposite response, and find it difficult to stop running).
I get nervous around powertools - too many scary movies too early - and the sound of trains in the dark. Dogs I don't know, other people's parents, other people's spit, rollercoasters, the Knife-Edge bridge at Mosi-oa-tunya, touching food that other people will eat... I could go on.
This, though, is something that has never been an issue for me:
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| Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia in August 2011, using an Olympus E-420 DSLR and a Zuiko 40-150mm lens. |
Europe doesn't have many snakes; Britain has only three, and as you might expect from this, not until really quite recently has it expanded its vocabulary to include species-specific names - even words such as the Greek-rooted 'Python' have only been in English for a couple of centuries.
Zambia has around seventy species of snake, some of which are harmless, some of which are potently venomous - some of which again will bite readily if they perceive a threat, some of which are unwilling to bite even if trodden on. Some will raise a hood and spit at people a few metres away but flee from people close by, similar species will raise a hood but not spit at a certain distance, but just strike if surprised close to.
The long and short of this is that there are a lot of words for specific snakes in Chewa and its sister-languages. The mildly venomous (nausea and mild to intense pain) species pictured above has the name of Chidyamsana in Chewa, or the Olive Grass Snake, Mozambique Whip-Snake or Mozambique Whip-Snake in English.
It's quite retiring, as one might expect from a small, thin snake, but if cornered will capitalise on its resemblance to the not-too-distantly related Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), and strike readily. As noted, it's not absolutely harmless, and with a good bite, could make you feel fairly sorry for yourself for a while, but, allergic or psychosomatic reactions notwithstanding, it's far from deadly.
Unfortunately, that resemblance that sometimes means it can send its attackers running now often leads this handy member of the suburban rodent - and indeed snake - control crew to be hacked to death.
Although it is readily confused with smaller specimens of the (much bigger) black mamba, it's shape is quite unlike it - very slender, and often appearing much longer than it actually is as a result, it more closely resembles the arboreal (and rarely seen) green mambas in form; its head, if seen from any angle other than the front, is easily distinguished by its short, pointed form (as opposed to the elegant elongated octagon of a mamba's head, aptly described as 'coffin-shaped' from above). Behold:
It might be better if I had a picture of a mamba to compare it to - I don't, but ARKive hosts a number of pictures (click here to visit them) of the species, which show the difference quite clearly.
With those points covered, it's probably time for the taxonomy. The snake itself is
Psammophis mossambicus
(Peters, 1882)
But from here on, it can get messy.
Snake taxonomy, by the way, is made atrocious by the existence of that enormous waste-bin taxon heretofore known as the family Colubridae, and in an attempt to reflect the actual relationships between snake species, I seem to be using a taxonomy that isn't necessarily used anywhere else; I put this lovely snake in the:
- Psammophiidae
which is usually treated as a subfamily of the troubling family Lamprophiidae - which is itself still treated by some as a subfamily of the afore-mentioned Colubridae. I'm treating them instead as a sister family within the
- Elapoidea
(along with all manner of snakes we'll be discussing in later posts). This is united with the majority of familiar snakes in the:
- Caenophidia
which does include the various colubrids - although most are venom-less constrictors, the only one featured on the blog thus far is the venomous Thelotornis capensis. These are united with the boas and pythons in the
- Alethinophidia
which excludes only a very few rather divergent members of the larger:
- Serpentes
Which are somewhere in the taxonomic mess otherwise known as the
-Squamata
Within which, the snakes cluster with the iguanians (such as Agama armata ), followed by the skinks and wall lizards (e.g. Afroablepharus wahlbergii, Trachylepis varia ,Trachylepis striata wahlbergi and Zootoca vivipara) and eventually the geckos (for example Lygodactylus capensis). All this falls within the:
- Lepidosauria
of which the only other extant group is the New Zealand endemic order Rhynchocephalia, the two species of Tuatara.
- Lepidosauromorpha
- Sauria
Although after this, the taxonomy gets a little more straightforward, this contains the Archosaurs (Crocodiles and dinosaurs, including birds such as Caprimulgus pectoralis, Tockus alboterminatus, Larus argentatus, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus, Troglodytes troglodytes, Megaceryle maxima, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica and Stigmatopelia senegalensis), and should really include the Anapsids - tortoises, turtles and various dead relatives. But that's another story.
- Diapsida
- Romeriida
- Reptilia
- Amniota
- Reptiliomorpha
- Tetrapoda
See also Rana temporaria, Chiromantis xerampelina, Breviceps poweri and Kassina senegalensis.
- Sarcopterygii
- Osteichthys
See also Synchiropus splendidus.
- Teleostomi
- Gnathostomata
- Vertebrata
- Craniata
- Chordata
- Deuterostomia
- Nephrozoa
See also Nephila fenestrata, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Alopecosa barbipes, Phrynarachne rugosa, Hyllus argyrotoxus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Pardosa amentata, Dysdera crocata, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Ligia oceanica, Dichtha inflata, Oedemera nobilis, Otiorhynchus atroapterus,Malachius bipustulatus , Phyllobius pomaceus, Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasinii, Lophyra cf. differens, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Anthophora furcata, Andrena nigroaenea, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Nemophora degeerella, Sphinx ligustri, Laelia robusta, Acada biseriata, Metisella willemi, Anthocharis cardamines, Papilio demodocus, Panorpa germanica, Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Metadon inermis, Diasemopsis meigenii, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Pephricus, Grypocoris stysi, Ranatra, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Idolomantis dentifrons, Sibylla pretiosa, Tettigonia viridissima, Stictogryllacris punctata, Enyaliopsis, Humbe tenuicornis, Lobosceliana loboscelis, Cyathosternum prehensile, Heteropternis thoracica, Pseudothericles jallae, Enallagma cyathigerum, Pseudagrion hageni, Lestinogomphus angustus, Rhyothemis semihyalina, Orthetrum brachiale and Burtoa nilotica.
- Bilateralia
- Eumetazoa
- Animalia
- Eukaryota
And, taking the first exit I can see at this point, that is all, folks!
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