Snake Verona – Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, Liberade Libera.
L’ Italian orbet ( Snake Verona Pollini, 1818 ) is a Sauro of the Anguidae family widespread in Italy and in the south-east of France. [first] [2]
The specific epithet, coined by the Italian naturalist Ciro Pollini (1782-1833), refers to the city of Verona, a geographical area from which the first specimens described. [3]
The Italian orbetino is a small scaled reptile which, although it resembles a snake, actually belongs to sub -art of Lacertilia; It is therefore a Sauro that similarly to snakes without limbs but stands out mainly from them due to the presence of mobile eyelids and for the ability to autotomy of the tail. It is also totally harmless to man: it does not bite and is not poisonous. The body, cylindrical, on average long around 50 cm, is covered with smooth and shiny scales, brown or gray in color with copper reflections; Females often have a vertebral strip and rather dark sides; Young people have golden or silver lives. Like many lizards, in case of danger he manages to break his tail (autotomy), leaving it on the ground to confuse the attacker; It is rarely regenerated fully and is often replaced by a tozzo stump. [4]
It is a reptile with twilight and night habits, and is visible especially after the rain. [4]
Diet [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]
It feeds mainly of snails, insects, larvae, but also of eggs.
Reproduction [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]
It is an Ovovivipara species: the females keep the eggs in incubation within themselves for about 3 months and give light from 6 to 10 small already formed. [5]
This species is widespread throughout the Italian peninsula (absent in Sardinia and Sicily) and in some areas of south-eastern France. [6]
It prefers sunny and humid areas, with low vegetation in which she can find shelter. [5]
Until the recent past, the populations of Orbettino Italiana were considered belonging to the species Snake fragile , widespread in most of Europe. A study from 2013, based on phylogenetic analysis conducted on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, showed that the Italian specimens, together with those from south-eastern France, form a clade distinct from the rest of the European populations, which has been raised to the rank of species in its own right. [2]
- ^ Snake Verona , in The Reptile Database . URL consulted on June 8, 2014 .
- ^ a b Gvojžka V., Benkovský N., Crottini A., Bellati A., Moravec J., Romano A., Sacchi R., Jandzik D., An Ancient Lineage of Slow Worms, Genus Anguis (Squamata: Anguidae), Survived in the Italian Peninsula , in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution , vol. 69, n. 3, 2013, pp. 1077–1092, DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.05.004 .
- ^ Pollini C., 1818: Letter of Mr. dr. Ciro Pollini to the director of the Italian Library around some diseases of the olive trees and some snakes of Veronese, to serve an appendix to his memory on the same topic included in T. VIII, p. 63 of this library, and to that of Mr. Bernardino Angelini around the Marasso we also inserted in T. VII, p. 451. Italian library or newspaper of literature science and arts, vol.9, p.236–240.
- ^ a b The orbet , in Mediterranean nature . URL consulted on June 9, 2014 .
- ^ a b Orbet , in Agraria.org – Agricultural Education Online . URL consulted on June 9, 2014 .
- ^ Mezzasalma M., Guarino F.M., Aprea G., Petraccioli A., Crottini A., today’s G., Karyological evidence for diversification of Italian slow worm populations (Squamata, Anguidae) , in Comp. Cytogenet. , vol. 7, n. 3, 2013, pp. 217–227.
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