The largest family of snakes comprising five subfamilies: Colubrinae, Natricinae, Homalopsinae, Lycodontinae, and Xenodontinae. They show a great diversity of eating habits, from eating almost anything to having a specialized diet. They can be oviparous, ovoviviparous, or viviparous. The majority of North American snakes are colubrines. Among the colubrids are king snakes, water snakes, and garter snakes. Some genera are poisonous. (Goin, Goin, and Zug, Introduction to Herpetology, 3d ed, pp321-29)

Annotation

its venom: coordinate with SNAKE VENOMS

DUI

D017812 MeSH Browser

CUI

M0026908

Previous indexing

Snakes (1968-1993)

History note

94

Public note

94