Natrix
Genus of snakes
Natrix is a genus of Old World snakes found mainly across Eurasia (although the range of Natrix tessellata extends into Egypt and those of N. astreptophora and N. maura into north-west Africa) in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. They are commonly called grass snakes and water snakes, but some other snake species also known commonly as "grass snakes" and "water snakes" are not in the genus.
01Species
The genus Natrix contains five extant species and at least five extinct (fossil-only) species.
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natrix astreptophora (Seoane, 1885) | Iberian grass snake | Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), southern France, coastal north-west Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia) | |
| Natrix helvetica (Lacépède, 1789) | barred grass snake | Western Europe, including southern Great Britain | |
| Natrix maura (Linnaeus, 1758) | viperine water snake | Portugal, Spain, France, north-west Italy and into Switzerland; north-west Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia) | |
| Natrix natrix (Linnaeus, 1758) | grass snake | Mainland Europe from mid Scandinavia to southern Italy, to northern Middle East and Central Asia | |
| Natrix tessellata (Laurenti, 1768) | dice snake | Much of Eurasia, and Egypt | |
| †Natrix longivertebrata (Szyndlar, 1984) | extinct species (Pliocene, Miocene) | Poland, Austria, France | |
| †Natrix merkurensis Ivanov, 2002 | extinct species (Miocene) | Czech Republic, France | |
| †Natrix mlynarskii Rage, 1988 | extinct species (Eocene, Miocene) | France | |
| †Natrix parva Szyndlar, 1984 | extinct species (Miocene) | Poland | |
| †Natrix sansaniensis (Lartet, 1851) | extinct species (Miocene) | Czech Republic, France |
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Natrix.
02Etymology
Natrix is classical Latin for a water snake. The word comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "snake", with cognates in the Celtic and Germanic languages, the latter including the English adder. It was probably influenced through folk etymology by the Latin nare and natare meaning "swim"; it appears to be a grammatically feminine word for "swimmer".
03Geography
The refuge of a widely distributed Western European lineage regarding the barred grass snake commonly known as Natrix helvetica was most likely located in southern France and outside the classical refuges in the southern European peninsulas. One genetic lineage of the common grass snake (N. natrix) is also distributed in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and the Balkan Peninsula.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Natrix”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Natrix natrix persa3.jpg by No machine-readable author provided. Fafner assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0
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