With the onset of the breeding season, snakes are actively looking for a sexual partner. In this case, the excited males use a chemical analyzer, “smelling” the air with their tongue and transferring to them insignificant quantities of chemical substances left in the environment of the female, to the pair Jacobson organ in the palate.
Courtships help the recognition of partners: each species uses its own specific stereotypes of movements. In some species, they are so complex that they resemble a dance, although in many cases the males simply rub their chins against the back of the female.
In the end, the partners are intertwined with tails, and the male hemipenis is introduced into the female’s cloaca. The copulatory organ of the serpents is paired and consists of two so-called. Hemipenis, which when excited exaggerate from the cloaca. The female has the ability to store live sperm, so after a single pairing can several times produce offspring.
Cubs appear in different ways. As a rule, they hatch from eggs, but many species of snakes are viviparous. If the incubation period is very short, delay in the laying of eggs can cause the cubs to hatch out of them inside the mother’s body. This is called egg production. However, in some species a simple placenta is formed, through which oxygen, water and nutrients are transferred from the mother to the embryo.
