Erpeton

Erpeton is a genus of water snake of the family Homalopsidae[1], which includes a single known species, the tentacled snake, Erpeton tentaculatum, which is native to South-East Asia. They are aquatic and extremely fast in catching their prey, small fish.[2] The snakes accomplish the capture of their prey by cheating on a C-start escape reflex of the fish: after a fish approaches, the snake bends, and makes a quick movement with a measured segment of its body, startling the fish exactly in the direction of snake's head.[3]

For the suffix "-erpeton", see List of commonly used taxonomic affixes.

Erpeton
Head of Erpeton tentaculatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Homalopsidae
Genus: Erpeton
Lacépède, 1800
Species

Erpeton tentaculatum

Synonyms

Rhinopirus Merrem, 1820
Herpeton Wagler, 1830
Homalopsis part. Schlegel, 1837

Footnotes
  1. http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Erpeton&species=tentaculatum
  2. LiveScience video - Snake Tricks Prey
  3. Catania KC (April 2011). "The brain and behavior of the tentacled snake". Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1225 (1): 83–9. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.05959.x. PMID 21534995.
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References
  • Catania, Kenneth C (2011). "Natural-Born Killer: Lethal from day one, the tentacled snake uses surprisingly sly tactics to capture fish." Scientific American. April 2011, pp. 65–67.


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