Anchieta's Cobra

About the Anchieta's Cobra

Anchieta's cobra (Naja anchietae), sometimes referred to as the Angolan cobra, is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to Southern Africa. Anchieta's cobra was first described by Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage in 1879. The specific epithet, anchietae, refers to José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta, a Portuguese explorer of Africa.

Along with the snouted cobra (N. haje annulifera), Anchieta's cobra (N. haje anchietae) was formerly regarded as subspecies of the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), but have since been proven to be distinct species. Based on analysis of character morphology, Broadley (1995) raised Naja annulifera to species level, with Naja annulifera anchietae as a subspecies. More research by Broadley & Wüster (2004) using both analysis of morphology character and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) further confirmed that Naja annulifera was a distinct species, but data obtained also showed that Naja anchietae to be a distinct species of its own. Further research by Wallach et al. (2009) placed the Egyptian cobra (N. haje) complex (African non-spitting cobras) into the subgenus Uraeus. The group is distinguished from... Wikipedia →