Pseudechis australis

Pseudechis australis, commonly known as the king brown- or mulga snake, or Pilbara cobra, is a species of venomous snake found in Australia. It is one of the longest venomous snakes in the world and is the second longest in Australia (surpassed only by the Inland taipan). Despite one of its common names, "king brown", it is a species in the genus Pseudechis, known as the black snake genus.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by John Edward Gray in 1842, who placed it in the genus Naja (cobras). The species was long regarded as monotypic, but several new taxa have recently been described from within P. australis. Two new species and a new genus have been described within this complex by Raymond Hoser: Pailsus pailsei, from near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia and Pailsus rossignolii, found in Irian Jaya. Hoser later also resurrected Pailsus weigeli (originally described as Cannia weigeli by Wells and Wellington 1987). These descriptions were initially received with skepticism due to the low level of evidence provided in the original descriptions. Later genetic analyses supported the validity of some of Hoser's species, but his genus Pailsus was shown to be a synonym of Pseudechis, and more work is needed to understand species limits among the smaller species of the group.