Blue-bellied black snake
| Blue-bellied black snake | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Elapidae |
| Genus: | Pseudechis |
| Species: | P. guttatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Pseudechis guttatus De Vis, 1905 | |
Pseudechis guttatus (the blue-bellied black snake or spotted black snake) is a species of black snake that is only found in the inland areas of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales. On average, their measurement is 1.25 m, but some snakes have been found to measure as long as 2 m. Their diet consists of frogs, lizards, and small mammals, therefore making them carnivorous.[1] They, like most other snakes, are oviparous, laying 7–12 eggs during their breeding season.[2] It is unknown what their average venom ejection is. When mice are bitten, the snake's venom is the most toxic of all the black snakes. They are naturally very shy, and will not bite unless provoked (by being stepped on by a boot, prodded by a stick, etc.). If a human is bitten, they may suffer severe pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, diaphoresis and regional lymphadenopathy at the location of the bite, similar to a red-bellied black snake's bite symptoms.[3] Bites are infrequent. If bitten, tiger snake antivenom is the preferred treatment.[4]