Formosan cobra

The Chinese cobra (Naja atra), also called Taiwan cobra, is a species of cobra in the family Elapidae, found mostly in southern China and a couple of neighboring nations and islands. It is one of the most prevalent venomous snakes in China and Taiwan, which has caused many snakebite incidents to humans. Naja atra was first described by Danish physician, zoologist, and botanist Theodore Edward Cantor in 1842. The generic name naja is a Latinisation of the Sanskrit word nāgá (नाग) meaning 'cobra'. The specific epithet atra comes from the Latin term ater, which means 'dark', 'black', or 'gloomy'. In Mandarin Chinese, the snake is known as Zhōnghuá yǎnjìngshé (simplified: 中华眼镜蛇, traditional: 中華眼鏡蛇, lit. 'Chinese spectacled snake', i.e. Chinese cobra), Zhōushān yǎnjìngshé (舟山眼鏡蛇, lit. 'Zhoushan spectacled snake', i.e. Zhoushan cobra) or, in Guangdong and Hong Kong, fànchǎntóu (飯鏟頭, lit. 'rice paddle head'). 'Spectacled snake' refers to the markings which the snake may at times have on the back of the hood that resemble eyeglasses. In Taiwanese, the snake is known as pn̄g-sî-chhèng (飯匙倩/銃, lit. 'rice paddle ?'), ba̍k-kiàⁿ-chôa (目鏡蛇, lit. 'spectacled snake', i.e. cobra), or tn̂g-ām-chôa (長頷蛇, lit. 'long-chinned snake'). This medium-sized snake is usually 1.2 to 1.5 metres (3.9 to 4.9 ft) long, but they can grow to a maximum length of 2 metres (6.6 ft) though this is rare. The hood mark shape is variable from spectacle, mask to horseshoe or O- shape and is often linked to light throat area on at least one side. The throat area is clearly defined light which is usually with a pair of clearly defined lateral spots. The Chinese cobra is iridescent black with a number of distant transversal double lines of a yellow colour. The abdominal surface is pearl or slaty coloured. The dorsal color of the Chinese cobra is usually brown, grey or black, with or without narrow, light transverse lines at irregular intervals which are especially prominent in juveniles. The upper head is usually the same color as the tail and dorsal part of the body, while the sides of the head are lighter in colour. Specimens with other colors on their dorsal surface, such as white, yellow or brown do occur. There may be irregular or scattered crosslines of white to light gray along the upper body and a spectacle marking on the hood. The ventral head and neck are white to light gray or light orange in colour. There is some variation in the colour of the ventral body and tail: it could be white to gray, dark gray mottled with white, or blackish. The populations in different geographic regions of Taiwan show a different composition of ventral colouration: the eastern population is all blackish (100%), the central and southern populations are mostly white to gray (both 80%), and the proportions of blackish and white-gray phases in the northern population are 60% and 30%, respectively.