Uraeus Wagler, 1830

Wallach, Van, Wüster, Wolfgang & Broadley, Donald G., 2009, In praise of subgenera: taxonomic status of cobras of the genus Naja Laurenti (Serpentes: Elapidae), Zootaxa 2236, pp. 26-36 : 31

Subgenus Uraeus Wagler, 1830

Type species: Coluber haje Linnaeus, 1758 , by monotypy.

Gender: masculine.

Etymology: derived from the Egyptian uraeus , a symbol of the goddess Wadjet in the shape of a cobra with a spread hood, which formed part of the head-dress of Egyptian divinities and kings.

Distribution: open formations in most of Africa and southern Arabia.

Content: six species:

Naja (Uraeus) anchietae Bocage, 1879: 89

Naja (Uraeus) annulifera Peters, 1854: 624

Naja (Uraeus) arabica Scortecci, 1932: 47

Naja (Uraeus) senegalensis Trape, Chirio & Wüster in Trape et al, 2009: xxx

Naja (Uraeus) haje ( Linnaeus, 1758: 225)

Naja (Uraeus) nivea ( Linnaeus, 1758: 223)

Diagnosis: Intracranial (dorsal) anterior Vidian canal position, almost always 2–3 solid maxillary teeth (one specimen out of 21 examined by Bogert [1943] and Szyndlar & Rage [1990] had one solid maxillary tooth on each side), seven supralabials with penultimate (sixth) shield high, combination of one preocular and one anterior temporal, rostral as broad as deep, internasals as long as prefrontals, dorsal scales matt or moderately shiny, and fangs not adapted for spitting.

Comments: This is a morphologically relatively conserved lineage that occupies open formations in much of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The most basal cladogenic split separates Naja (Uraeus) nivea , a species largely restricted to southern African areas with winter rainfall, from the remaining species, which occupy primarily tropical or subtropical formations (Wüster et al., 2007).