Zicoflex Chrysopelea, more commonly known as theflying snakeorgliding snake, is a genusthat belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snakesare mildly venomous, [1]though the venom is only dangerous to their small prey. [2]Their range is in Southeast Asia(the mainland(Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), Greaterand Lesser Sundas, Maluku, and the Philippines), southernmost China, India, and Sri Lanka. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Contents[ hide]
1 Gliders
2 Diet
3 Species
4 References
5 External links
Gliders[ edit]
Chrysopeleais also known by its common name "flying snake." It climbs using ridge scales along its belly, [7]pushing against rough barksurface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree's branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch's end. It then makes a J-shape bend, [7]leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to use to control its glide path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its abdomen and flaring out its ribs to turn its body into a "pseudo concave wing", [8]all the while making a continual serpentinemotion of lateral undulation [9]parallel to the ground [10]to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely. [11]
The combination of forming a C-shape by sucking in its stomach and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge earth-bound predators. [7]The concave wing that a snake creates in sucking in its stomach flattens its body to up to twice its width from the back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbeeor flying disc. [10]When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressureunder the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly. [12]A snake continuously moves in lateral undulationto create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide. [10]Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrelsand other gliding animals, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m. [10] [13]Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitudecontrol by "slithering" in the air. [1]
Their ability to glide has been an object of interest for physicistsand the United States Department of Defensein recent years, [11] [14]and studies continue to be made on what other, more subtle, factors contribute to their gliding. According to recent research conducted by the University of Chicago, scientists discovered a correlation between size and gliding ability, in which smaller flying snakes were able to glide longer distances horizontally. [1]
According to research performed by Professor Jake Sochaat Virginia Tech, these snakes can change the shape of their body in order to produce aerodynamic forces so they can glide in the air. [15] [16]Scientists are hopeful that this research will lead to design robots which can glide in the air from one place to another. [17]