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Ophiophagy (Greek: ὄφις + φαγία, lit. ' snake eating ') is a specialized form of feeding or alimentary behavior of animals which hunt and eat snakes.There are ophiophagous mammals (such as the skunks and the mongooses), birds (such as snake eagles, the secretarybird, and some hawks), lizards (such as the common collared lizard), and even other snakes, such as the Central and South ...
Under the genus Ophiophagus, it is not phylogenetically a true cobra despite its common name and some resemblance. Spanning from the Indian Subcontinent through Southeastern Asia to Southern China , the king cobra is widely distributed albeit not commonly seen.
Ophiophagus kaalinga is endemic to the Western Ghats in southwestern India, found in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and parts of Maharashtra.Its range extends from the Ashambu hills near Kanyakumari through various mountain ranges, including the Agasthyamalai and Cardamom hills, reaching elevations of about 100 m to 1800 m above sea level.
Several other elapid species are also called "cobras", such as the king cobra and the rinkhals, but neither is a true cobra, in that they do not belong to the genus Naja, but instead each belong to monotypic genera Hemachatus (the rinkhals) [1] and Ophiophagus (the king cobra/hamadryad). [2] [3]
Ophiophagus salvatana Gowri Shankar, Das & Wüster, 2024 The Luzon king cobra ( Ophiophagus salvatana ) is a species of king cobra that is endemic to the island of Luzon in northern Philippines .
Ophiophagus bungarus, the Sunda king cobra, is a species of king cobra that inhabits areas south of the Kra Isthmus or land bridge joining the Malay Peninsula with the rest of southeast Asia or Indochina.
The generic name and the specific epithet naja is a Latinisation of the Sanskrit word nāga meaning "cobra". [8] The Indian cobra is classified under the genus Naja of the family Elapidae. The genus was first described by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. [9]
The binomial name often reflects limited knowledge or hearsay about a species at the time it was named. For instance Pan troglodytes, the chimpanzee, and Troglodytes troglodytes, the wren, are not necessarily cave-dwellers. Sometimes a genus name or specific descriptor is simply the Latin or Greek name for the animal (e.g. Canis is Latin for ...