ringed brown snake
{{short description|Highly venomous snake native to Australia}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Ringed brown snake
| image=Pseudonaja modesta 01 - Christopher Watson.jpg
| image_caption =P. modesta in Northern Territory, Australia
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Pseudonaja
| species = modesta
| authority = Günther, 1872
| synonyms=Cacophis modesta Günther
Furina ramsayi Macleay, 1885
Brachysoma sutherlandi De Vis, 1884
}}
The ringed brown snake (Pseudonaja modesta) is a species of venomous elapid snake native to a broad swathe of inland Australia, from western New South Wales and Queensland to Western Australia.{{cite web|url=https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/d620340a-9409-4e19-bbbd-db7ffec08a95 |title=Species Pseudonaja modesta (Günther, 1872) |author=Australian Biological Resources Study|date=26 August 2013|work=Australian Faunal Directory|publisher=Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government|accessdate=6 October 2017|location=Canberra, Australian Capital Territory}}
Albert Günther described it as Cacophis modesta in 1872, from specimens collected in northwestern Australia.{{cite journal | last=Günther| first= Albert | year= 1872 | title= Seventh account of new species of snakes in the collection of the British Museum | journal= Annals and Magazine of Natural History | volume= 4| issue=9|pages= 13–37 [35] | url=https://archive.org/stream/cbarchive_100443_seventhaccountofnewspeciesofsn1840/seventhaccountofnewspeciesofsn1840#page/n25/mode/2up}} The specific name modesta is the Latin adjective "unassuming", "orderly",{{cite book | last = Simpson | first = D.P. | title = Cassell's Latin Dictionary | publisher = Cassell Ltd. | year = 1979 | edition = 5 | page=371 | location = London | isbn = 0-304-52257-0}} or "well-behaved", regarded as apt by toxicologist Struan Sutherland, as the snake generally does not bite people.{{cite book|last1=Sutherland|first1=Struan K.|last2=Tibballs |first2=James |title=Australian Animal Toxins|edition=2nd |year=2001|orig-year=1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=South Melbourne, Victoria | pages= 124–25 |isbn=0-19-550643-X}} Meanwhile, Charles Walter De Vis described Brachysoma sutherlandi from Carl Creek, Norman River in northwestern Queensland in 1884,{{cite journal | last=De Vis| first= C.W. | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43257575 | year=1884| title= Descriptions of a new snake with a synopsis of the genus Hoplocephalus | journal= Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland | volume=1|pages= 138–40 [139]}} and William Macleay described Furina ramsayi, naming it after Edward Pierson Ramsay, in 1885 from a collection from Milparinka in northwestern New South Wales.{{cite journal | last= Macleay | first= William | year=1885 | title= On a new snake from the Barrier Ranges |journal = Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales | volume= 10| pages= 61–62 | doi= 10.5962/bhl.part.17897 |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6597252 | doi-access= free }} All three are the same species.
Reaching around 50 cm (20 in) in length, the ringed brown snake has grey-brown to red-brown upperparts with a black head and neck split by a cream band, as well as four to seven black bands with cream margins at regular intervals down the length of its body. Its underparts are cream to yellow splotched with orange. The upper dark bands may fade markedly with age.{{cite book | last=Cogger| first= Harold G. | year=2014 | orig-year=1975 | title=Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia |edition=7th |page=927 | publisher= CSIRO Publishing| location=Melbourne, Victoria |isbn=9780643100350}} Its colour and markings, particularly its black head and neck band, resemble the juvenile eastern brown snake.
The ringed brown snake is found in arid regions across inland Australia (except Victoria). It lives in arid shrubland or grassland, where it hides in spinifex or under fallen timber.
A girl bitten by this species in 1987 suffered mild systemic symptoms. No coagulopathy was recorded.