diamond-snaken.
A name given to various snakes or serpents having diamond-shaped markings, esp. (a) a large Australian serpent, Morelia spilotes; (b) a venomous Tasmanian serpent, Hoplocephalus superbus.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Pythonidae > morelia spilotes (diamond snake)
diamond-snake1814
carpet-snake1863
1814 Sporting Mag. 44 93 A snake of the diamond species was lately killed at St. George's River..New South Wales.
1847 F. W. L. Leichhardt Jrnl. Overland Exped. Austral. iii. 78 Charley killed a diamond snake, larger than any he had ever seen before.
1850 J. B. Clutterbuck Port Phillip iii. 43 The diamond snake is that most dreaded by the natives.
1863 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. (new ed.) III. 117 It is called the Diamond snake on account of the pattern of its colours..arranged so as to produce a series of diamonds along its back.
1882 C. C. Hopley Snakes 423 The Diamond snake..on the mainland is the harmless Python molurus, and in Tasmania the venomous Hoplocephalus superbus, with very broad scales.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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