|
''Chrysopelea'', more commonly known as the flying snake or gliding snake, is a genus that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snakes are mildly venomous,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Researchers reveal secrets of snake flight )〕 though the venom is only dangerous to their small prey. Their range is in Southeast Asia (the mainland (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), Greater and Lesser Sundas, Maluku, and the Philippines), southernmost China, India, and Sri Lanka.〔Pawar, S. and Birand, A. "(A survey of amphibians, reptiles, and birds in northeast India )" ''CERC Technical Report No.6 .'' Centre for Ecological Research and Conservation, Mysore. 2001. Accessed 2009-07-14.〕〔De Rooij, N. (1915). "(The reptiles of the Indo-Australian archipelago )" Leiden: E.J. Brill. Accessed 2009-07-14.〕 ==Gliders== ''Chrysopelea'' is also known by its common name "flying snake".It climbs using ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough bark surface 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,〔 leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to use to control its flight 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", all the while making a continual serpentine motion of lateral undulation〔 〕 parallel to the ground〔 〕 to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely. The combination of 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.〔 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 frisbee or flying disc.〔 When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly.〔Hummel, S.A. "(Frisbee Flight Simulation and Throw Biomechanics )." ''University of Missouri, Rolla Ph.D. Thesis.'' 1997. Accessed 2009-07-14.〕 A snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide.〔 Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrels and 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.〔 Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.〔 Their ability to glide has been an object of interest for physicists and the United States Department of Defense in recent years,〔 and studies continue to be made on what other, more subtle, factors contribute to their flight. 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.〔 According to research performed by Professor Jake Socha at Virginia Tech, these snakes can change the shape of their body in order to produce aerodynamic forces so they can glide in the air. Scientists are hopeful that this research will lead to design robots which can glide in the air from one place to another. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chrysopelea」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|