Introduces the coral snake, a venomous serpent with red bands amidst stripes of other colors, and describes its habitat, appearance, and habits.

Learn how coral snakes live and hunt in the wild.

Describes the physical characteristics, habitat, and behavior of coral snakes.

There’s an old saying about the colorful coral snake: “Red on yellow, kill a fellow.” This is a handy phrase to remember because it helps people distinguish between dangerous coral snakes and the nonvenomous snakes that resemble them. Readers learn that the real coral snake packs a powerful dose of deadly venom in each bite. Numerous colorful photos of coral snakes in the wild are combined with informative text to give readers a close-up view of these dangerous slithering reptiles.

This monographic treatment offers all the basic knowledge about New World venomous coral snakes. It gives full description and keys for identification of all the species and subspecies, with maps of distribution and variation, including morphology, anatomy and colour patterns, as well as folklore. Natural history includes ecology, food and feeding, reproduction, enemies and defense, biogeography and evolution, with special reference to mimicry and cannibalism. Chapters on venoms and snakebite survey characteristics and effects of venom, snakebite accidents, first aid and remedies.

This handbook addresses various topics on clinical toxinology such as the epidemiology and management of snake and insect bites in Australia and different countries in Europe and the Americas. Chapters will be written by experts currently working in the subspecialty, many of whom have first-hand experience in the relevant research fields. In virtually all the topics, appropriate illustrations are provided to simplify comprehension including tables, figures and pictures. Clinical toxinologic conditions are becoming increasingly frequent, more so than is generally recognized. The conditions comprise of clinical aspects such as the diagnosis, management, and prevention of snakebite envenoming, scorpion sting, mushroom toxins, plant toxins, and other natural toxins. Clinical toxinology also deals with the ecology, epidemiology, regional differences, and varieties of fauna accounting for different envenoming manifestations. This reference work, part of the Toxinology handbook series, is designed to keep readers abreast with new knowledge and experience in toxinology regionally and globally. Toxinologists, researchers, scientists, and experts in this field from various working areas considered it necessary to collect all the aspects of clinical toxinology in a single, handy handbook. This can be used by medical students, postgraduate students, general practitioners, specialists in internal medicine, critical care physicians, emergency physicians, and anesthetists worldwide.

Coral snakes are small, brightly colored venomous elapids with black noses. Their markings of black, red, and yellow or white rings serve as a warning that coral snakes can cause harm. Readers will learn about the different behaviors of coral snakes, including that they will flatten their bodies to look larger or raise their tails to confuse predators.