Herp Terminology

[Georgia]

0.0.1: Unsexed

0.1 : One Female

1.0 : One Male

2.1 : Two Male

ABX : Abbreviation for antibiotics. ("He was on abx for 3
weeks.")

Acute: Of short duration; not chronic.

Aggregate : A group of individuals drawn together due to some
environmental attraction (safe sleeping area,
basking areas, food source, mating).

AFT: African Fat Tail.

AHS: African House Snake.

Ambient : Surrounding temperature; room air temperature

Albino : Skin lacks all dark pigments such as black, brown,
orange and red; albino herps are white with some
yellow. Current use in herpetoculture applies this
term to all reptiles lacking one or more colors.
Thus, anerythristic, amelanistic and albinos are all
being referred to as albino.

Amelanistic : Skin lacks all melanin, the substance which
produces brown and black coloring in the skin

Arboreal : Living in or climbing trees

Aspirate : The inhaling of fluids into the lungs

Ataxia : Loss of muscle coordination.

ATB: Amazon Tree Boa.

Aquatic : Lives in, or mostly in, water

Autonomy: The defensive release of the tail; also refers to the
autoamputation of toes or by constriction of
retained skin shed

Basking Light: A light or overhead heating element that produces
an area of higher heat in an enclosure required by
the reptile for digestion

Beak: Hard or bony mouthparts on chelonians and some
tadpoles

Bifurcated: Notched in two, such as a snake's tongue. Iguana
tongues have a small, deep pink notch in the tip,
often only visible once the iguana has reached a
year or so of age.

Brumation: Torpor induced by prolonged periods of low
temperatures.

Buccal: The tissues in the mouth (roof, walls, gums).

BP: Ball Python.

BCC: Boa Constrictor Constrictor

BCI: Boa Constrictor Imperator

BCL: Boa constrictor Longicauda

BCO: Boa Constrictor Occidentalis

BOI: Board of Inquiry

BRB: Brazilian Rainbow Boa

BTS: Blue Tongue Skink

BURM: Burmese Python

Carbuncle: Egg tooth, used by oviparous species to cut a slit in
their shell through which they will push their way
out.

Carnivorous: Eats only animal flesh

Chelonian: A collective term referring to turtles and tortoises

Caudal: Towards the tail end of the body

Chronic: Of long duration

CL: Carapace length.

Cloaca: A passage used for eliminating fecal, urinary and
reproductive discharges. From the Latin word
meaning "sewer".

Conspecifics: Members of the same species.
CB: Captive Born

CBB: Captive Bred & Born

CH: Captive Hatched

CO-DOM: Co-Dominant Trait

CP: Carpet python

CWD: Chinese Water Dragon

DOM: Dominant Trait

Cranial: Towards the head end of the body

Crepuscular: Active at dawn and dusk

Crest: A decorative ridge of skin or spikes that may occur
on the neck, back and/or tail.

Crotalus: Crotalus is a genus of venomous pit
vipers found only in the Americas from
southern Canada to northern
Argentina.The name is derived from
the Greek word krotalon, which means
"rattle" or "castanet", and refers to the
rattle on the end of the tail which makes
this group (genera Crotalus and
Sistrurus) so distinctive.
32 species are recognized.


Debride: The removal of dead or injured tissue

Dehydration : Reduction of water in body tissues and blood; can
be fatal. Dehydration can be due to insufficient
water intake, a too-arid an environment, or as a
result of thermal burns.

Dewlap: The flap or fold of skin on lizards along the throat
from chin to chest; some may be flared outward
during territorial and aggression displays

Diurnal: Active during the day.

Dorsal : Towards the back (spinal area).

Dorsoventral : Relating to the dorsal and lateral sides of the body.

Dysecdysis : Difficult shedding skin

Dystocia : Abnormal or difficult labor or birth

Ecdysis : Process of shedding the skin.


Ectoparasite: Parasites living outside (or on) the body


Ectothermic: "Cold-blooded" - body temperature varies
according to ambient external temperatures.

Ectotherm: Having to regulate internal body temperature by
seeking out different external heat sources. See the
related term, poikilotherm.

Endoparasite: Parasites living inside the body

Estivation : Torpor brought on by extended periods of drought
or heat.

Eversion : Turning out; inside out

[Georgia]

Femoral Pores : Enlarged pores found on the inside of the thighs of
males and females. Males have larger pores than
females. The plugs in the male iguana's pores
grow during breeding season and are used to scent
mark their territory. Females do some scent
marking but not as extensively as males.
Chemicals in the waxy plugs can be used to tell if
the iguana who left the mark was male or female

Fibrosis : Excessive fibrous tissue formation as a result of
injury, infection; calcium deficiency causes fibrosis
of the long bones of the body.

Follicles: The enlarging ova in ovaries, prior to fertilization.

Fossorial : Burrows under ground or beneath vegetation

Glottis : The opening at the back of the tongue leading into
the trachea (wind pipe)

Granuloma: Tumor-like mass caused by a chronic
inflammatory or infectious condition.

Gravid :Pregnant. Used when referring to viviparous,
oviparous and ovoviviparous animals.

[Georgia]

Heliotherm(c) :
Basks in the heat of the sun (or other overhead
bright heat source). Commonly found in arboreal
and semiarboreal iguanids and agamids,
chameleonids, etc. Aquatic and semiaquatic turtles
also bask. Snakes use a combination of
heliothermic and thigmothermic strategies.

Hemipenes : The bi-lobed male reproductive organs in most
reptiles, kept inverted in the tail until needed.

Herbivorous: Plant eaters. Includes fructivores (fruit eaters) and
folivores (leaf eaters)

Herpetology : The study of reptiles and amphibians. From the
Greek word herpeton, "things that creep and crawl
on their bellies". The herpesvirus is based on the
same Greek root, named for the viruses creeping
along the nerves in the body.

Herp: A reptile or amphibian. "Herpers" is the word
to refer to people who are interested in or who keep
herps. Herpetoculture refers to the keeping and
breeding of herps.

Herxheimer (herx) : Also known as the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction.
Used to describe the die-off effect of many
antibiotics, paraciticides, and antifungals. When
the drug kills off the initial large numbers of most
susceptible organisms, the patient experiences
several days or a week or more of feeling worse as
the dead organism lyse and pass through the gut
until they are excreted/voided. Once the dead
organisms clear out, the patient feels better,
resuming more normal daily activities, coloring and
appetite. A second, less severe, herx effect may be
observed subsequent to the follow-up doses that
deal with the more resistant organisms.

Hepatic : Relating to the liver.

[Georgia]

Hemolysis : See Lyse (Lysis)

Het : Short for hetero, the standard color/pattern for
which an animal carries dominant genes.

Insectivore : Eats only insects.

Invertebrate : Animals having external skeletons or shells, or
none (e.g., insects, snails, slugs, worms, crabs).

Lateral : Refers to the side, as in "lateral folds".

Lethargy: Drowsiness or prolonged lapses into
unconsciousness

Lysis:
(lyse, -lyse, lysing, -lysis) Lysis is the destruction
of a cell, through the rupture of the cell wall by the
contents of the cell or through some outside
action. Hemolysis (destruction of blood cells) can
occur during the taking of a blood sample (needle
gauge too small; blood pressure high due to
stress), or when transferring collected blood too
quickly from the collection syringe to the
processing tube. Hemolysis can cause abnormal
blood test results which must be taken into
consideration when evaluating certain high/low
ranges.

[Georgia]

Hot: Venomous.

MIHF: frequency when discussing issues relating to male
iguana aggression, this acronym will simplify the
typing, if not the biochemistry.

Mandible : Lower jaw.

Maxilla : Upper jaw

Medial (Median) : Toward the midline (center) of the body.


Morph: A color or pattern (e.g., albino is a morph of the
standard form).


Necrotic: Dead skin or tissue, often the result of burns or
infection.

Nephrotoxic : Chemically damaging to the kidneys.

Nocturnal: Active at night.


Nuchal: Refers to the neck area. An iguana has a nuchal
(from the back of the head to the shoulders) and a
dorsal crest (from the end of the nuchal area to the
base of the tail).

Omnivorous: Eat both plant and animal matter.

Osteomalacia : Softening of the bones.


Oviposition: Laying eggs. Adult female crickets have an
ovipositor, a stick-like projection off their tail end
which is used to deposit the eggs.

Oviparous : Reproduces by laying eggs.

Ovoviviparous: Reproduces by forming eggs which are retained, in
a shell-less form, inside the mother until they are
ready to hatch. They either hatch inside the body,
appearing outside as if through viviparous birth, or
the egg sacs are expelled from the mother's body
and the young break through the sac membrane to
free themselves.

[Georgia]

Parathyroid: Glandular structures secreting parathormone, used
in calcium metabolism.

Parietal Eye: A photosensory organ connected to the pineal
body, active in triggering hormone production
(including reproduction) and thermoregulation;
sensitive to changes in light and dark, it does not
form images, having only a rudimentary retina and
lens; visible as an opalescent gray spot on the top
of some lizard's heads; also referred to as "pineal
eye" or "third eye".

Parthenogenic : Females who reproduce without males, producing
primarily or only female offspring (daughters).
Common in several lizard species

Pathogen: Disease-causing organism.

Photoperiod : A day/night cycle of light/dark. Depending on the
context in which this term is used, it may refers to
just the daylight period (see also photoperiod).

Pipping: The breaking open of an egg shell by the hatchling
inside. Most hatchlings are equipped with an "egg
tooth," a sharp protruberance on their mouth, used
to pierce and cut a tear in the shell.

Poikilotherm: An animal whose temperature varies with that of
its environment, excluding birds and mammals.
("Cold-blooded")

Plastron : The bottom park of a turtle or tortoise shell.

Renal : Relating to the kidneys.

Rostral: Relating to the rostrum - the nose and area
surrounding the nostrils and front of the top lip.

Saxicolous : Rock and crevice dweller.

Scotophase: The dark period during of 24 hour period of light
and dark (see also photoperiod).

Setae :
singular: seta. The tiny hair-like projections on
some the toe pads of some gecko species that
enable them to climb smooth vertical surface, even
walk across ceilings. Each seta is tipped with
hundreds of spatulate projections. There are
theories about how exactly they work.

Semi-Aquatic: Lives on land but spends some or much time in
water.

Snout-Tail Length (stl; STL) : The measurement of an animal from
nose to the end tip of the tail.

Snout-Vent Length (svl; SVL) : The measurement of an animal from
nose to the vent.

SP: Subspecies. (UK: ssp.)

SPP: Species (plural)

Species : Plural: ranking below a genus or subgenus, related
organisms capable of interbreeding. Singular: one
such type of organism.

Subspecies : Ranking below species, used for organisms related
at the species level but who show distinct
differences, other than color/pattern, from other
species or subspecies in the genus.

Spur : The remnant of the hind limb, visible as a small
claw on either side of the vent, on boas and
pythons. On some torotises, an enlarged scale
projecting out from the legs, generally the inside of
the hind legs.

Subcutaneous :Just beneath the skin (as in SQ, subq,
subcutaneous fluids).

[Georgia]

Temperature Gradient: A range of temperature needed to enable a reptile
to regulate its internal (core) body temperature.

Terrestrial : Lives on land.

Thermoregulate : In reptiles, their ability to change their body
temperature by moving from warm to cool places.

Thigmotherm(ic) : Absorbs heat by laying/resting against warm
objects in the environment. Commonly found in
snakes, Lacertidae, Scincidae, and Teiidae. Snakes
use a combination of heliothermic and
thigmothermic strategies.

Torpor : Sluggishness, inactive, lethargic.

Ultraviolet light (UV) : Radiant energy in the range of about 100-380
nanometers (nm). For practical applications, the UV
band is broken down further as follows:

Ozone Producing 180 - 220nm

Bactericidal (germicidal) 220 - 300 nm

Erythemal (skin reddening) 280 - 320 nm

"Black" light 320 - 400 nm

The international Commission on Illumination (CIE)
defines the UV bands as UV-A (315-400nm); UV-B
(280 - 315 nm) and UV-C (100-280

Urates : The non-fecal part of the excreta. Depending on the
species, this may be a clear thin or viscous fluid
with or without thicker white parts. In carnivorous
and omnivorous reptiles, the white part of the
urates may be semi-soft pellets which harden after
deposition into a chalk-like substance. In
herbivores, the white part of the urate may be laced
through the urates and around the fecal pellet or
hidden within the feces.

Vent : The exterior opening of the cloaca; anus.

Ventral: Towards the belly.

Vertebrate : Animals having internal skeletons (mammals,
birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish).

Viviparous : Bears live young rather than laying eggs.

Xanthic : Increased amounts of, or excessive, yellow,
coloring.

Zoonosis : A disease (bacteria, fungus or worm) transmitted
from one animal to another, including to and from
humans

[Georgia]

Ackie: acanthuris, as in Varanus

Aglyphic: snakes that do not have fangs for
venom delivery.

Allele: one of two or more possible different
forms of a particular gene.

Amelanistic: lacking melanin or black
pigment

Amphibian: an animal belonging to the
vertebrate class Amphibia, including frogs,
toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians.
Most species in this class have an aquatic
immature stage and are terrestrial or
partially terrestrial as adults.

Ampullary Organ: an organ present in the
skin of some amphibians, which can detect
weak electrical impulses.

Anal plate: a modified ventral scale that
covers covers and protects the vent (see
vent). May be one scale in snakes
possessing a single anal plate or two
scales side by side in those snakes
possessing a divided anal plate. The
feature is useful in identifying snakes.

Anerythristic: lacking red pigment.

Anuran: a frog or toad.

Antivenin: horse or sheep serum with
cultured antibodies used to counteract
venom in cases of snakebite from a
venomous species.

Antivenom: see antivenin.

Arboreal: living in the trees. An animal that
spends most of its time off the ground in
the limbs of trees.

Assist feed: to start a food item into a
reptile’s mouth and then allow the animal
to finish eating on its own.

Axanthic: lacking yellow pigment

Bask: to lie in a warm area, as under a heat
lamp or in the sun, in order to absorb heat.

Binomial: a scientific name comprised of
two parts, genus and species. Ex. Crotalus
adamanteus. Crotalus is the genus for
Rattlesnakes and adamanteus is the
species name for the Eastern Diamondback
Rattlesnake.

Biology: the study of life and all life forms.

Blue: see Opaque

Boar: A term sometimes used to refer to a
male animal, occasionally used in
reference to reptiles, especially Indigo
Snakes.

Boid: snakes belonging to the family
Boidae. It includes all of the boas and
pythons.

Brumate: to place an animal in Brumation.

Brumation: “cooling” a herp by lowering its
temperature for usually 2 to 4 months to
approximate conditions during the winter
period. This is not the true hibernation of
mammals. Brumation triggers the physical
changes that stimulate egg production in
females, sperm production in males and
the breeding response necessary for
successful captive propagation.

Burrow: to dig underground for shelter or
for the purpose of concealment or hunting
for food. The tunnel created by a burrowing
animal.

Cannibal, Cannibalistic: an animal that
feeds on others of its own kind.

Carapace: A turtle or tortoise’s upper shell.

Carnivorous, Carnivore: meat eater. An
animal that eats the meat of other animals,
or in the case of many reptiles, eats the
whole animal.

Caudal: referring to the tail.

[Jim Smith]

Very helpful posting. While I knew many of the terms and definitions, there were others I was not familiar with. Thanks for sharing.

[SSSSnakes]

PAM = Provent-a-Mite, not the cooking spray. lol

[54bogger]

Very helpful, good for quick reference. Thank's

[red ink]

V. acanthurus not acanthuris

Brumation isn't "cooling" it is a instinctual reaction to natural stimuli i.e. the seasons. Some specimens will go into brumation in a captive setting regardless if the enclosure is "cooled" or not.

Het is not just short for hetero...
It's actually heterozygous....pertaining to an individual (or a condition in a cell or an organism) containing two different alleles for a particular trait.

[franks]

Wow. You put a ton of work into this.
I would add:

UTH- under tank heater, or heat pad

[IW17]

Very cool. This should be a sticky that can be added to in the future. Great tool for so many confusing abbreviations.

[Georgia]

I tried to add them all, but theres just so many its crazy.

[marvelfreak]

Here a thread from a while back.

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-discussion/85699-herp-lingo.html

[Georgia]

True but doesnt have a complete list on it