animals listed in book 11 of the florentine codex, p. 3
A list by canaryswear · 65 items
ok sorry for the spam everyone im stopping for a bit https://compend.org/list/7f464ed0-8c86-416e-8032-ef5905762bb4 <- p. 2
- Heterodon
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is of average size, not large nor wide. It is a little like a [sheet of] paper. Its head is as if at one corner of the mat, and at the other end is its tail. As it travels, it is as if someone dragged a mat. It just runs back and forth. It lives in few places; and only few see it.
- Drymobius margaritiferus
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05Its name, alternatively, is citlalin imiuh. It is green and painted like a star. In few places and very seldom does it appear—is it seen. Nevertheless, it is poisonous, truly terrifying. He whom it bites, [whenever it bites him,] then always goes off to die as dawn nears, when the morning star appears. It is said that it shoots an arrow into him; really, the citlalcoatl has bitten him. Chichimeca watch for the citlalcoatl, because it lies in dangerous places in the crags. And the snake-bitten one they surround with medicine. The Chichimeca encircle him with arrows, and they expect that when the morning star appears, that is when he will die or will improve. But if he follows the star a little, if it goes still farther, the snake-bitten one will not die; he will recover. Especially if it has dawned, if the light shines on him, the patient will recover.
- Metlapilcoatlus nummifer
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is thick, cylindrical; when seen from afar it is not apparent where its mouth is. At both ends it is like a mano; at both ends it is pointed; it is just like something smoky, dark. As it travels, it slithers, and sometimes it only rolls like a mano. Yet it is not poisonous, not harmful. It lives especially there in the Totonac region.
- Crotalus durissus
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is very big, thick, like a beam perhaps ten cubits long. It has rattles, teeth, fangs. It is slick, smooth, slippery, smoky, dark like the tlilcoatl. The belly is smoky-yellow, the nose-tip ruddy. It is poisonous. There is no cure for it if it bites one; it is fatal. It lives in the hot lands. In very many places and often is it seen in Totonac country. It bites one, it strikes one; it completely envelops things, it swallows them whole. It awaits one on the road, it blocks the road to one. Wherever there is a single opening, there it stretches out—it stretches out blocking the road. It stretches out along it, or diagonally across it; it stretches out crossing the way so that none may pass, or so that there it may bite one. And if there is flight, if there is departure from its presence, it pursues one, it flies at one. But in order that it will not fly at one, in order that it will not destroy, he wraps up fine tobacco in paper; he throws it at [the serpent]. Or else he fills small jars [with fine tobacco] to throw the small jars at it so that the small jars suddenly burst, and the fine tobacco suddenly scatters. Thus [the serpent] stretches out enfeebled. Then he puts on the end of a stick a paper, a rag, well provided with fine tobacco; he inserts it in its mouth, so that it then does nothing more. He there captures it; he kills it. And it lies in water caverns, in crags, in canyons. There it lies eating, enjoying, swallowing, swallowing, whole the small animals.
- Bothrops atrox
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is of average size, about like the tecutlacoçauhqui. It is smoky. And it is called palancacoatl because it stinks, and its body looks as if it were full of sores, as if it lay mouldering. On it lie flies swarming. And wherever it travels the road, there it goes stinking; with it the flies go swarming, they go along buzzing. And it is indeed a palancacoatl: whomever it bites no more escapes; it has no cure, so that he dies, he is consumed by the suppuration.
- Striped whipsnake
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is of average size, not very thick. It is long; when mature it is four [or] three fathoms. It is yellow, chili-red, green, white, which run along its back; it is striped with them. It is not poisonous; only when it is made angry, or when it hunts, it just coils itself about one, crushes one, or chokes one. It is called hecacoatl because when it travels it raises itself erect. On level land, it goes standing on the end of its tail; it is as if it went flying along. And when it emerges on grasses, on bushes, when it goes there, it is as if a narrow current of air emerged.
- Conopsis biserialis
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is of average size and not very long. It has no rattles, no teeth. It is smoky, dark. One really names it tzoalcoatl [because] it is as black as amaranth seed dough. Also it is inoffensive, not poisonous; an ordinary serpent, a stupid little snake, a very useless little snake—harmless, … .
- Pituophis deppei
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is of average size. It is like the poisonous serpent, the chiauitl. It has no rattles, nor is it poisonous. It is painted yellow, ruddy, dark; it resembles the tecutlacoçauhqui. It is broad-headed, big-mouthed, large-mouthed; not a bearer of young but an egg-layer, an egg-producer, a hatcher, a nest-maker. It is one which coils about one; not poisonous, just a striker; one which swallows things whole. It has no poison, no venom. It strikes, swallows, swallows whole, coils itself about one. Thus does it kill: once a coyote was seen seated on the grass by the edge of the road, its face very much swollen; it had protruded its eyes. And a traveler came upon it. It was beckoning to him with its paw; like a man was this coyote. Then the traveler went toward it and saw that a cincoatl was coiled about its neck and its legs; it protruded from its flank. Thus [the serpent] could kill it. Then the traveler took a stick; he repeatedly beat the serpent with it. Then the cincoatl uncoiled and fell to the ground, whereupon the coyote fled. Later the coyote paid its debt well, for it gave many birds to this warrior who had saved it.
- Nematomorpha
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is quite slender, just like a hair. And it travels in this manner: it just goes forming itself into a bracelet, forming itself into a ball. Like a discarded hair, like one which is pulled out, it travels little by little. And this one is rare; seldom and in few places is it seen.
- Leptophis mexicanus
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05The mecacoatl is as thick as our thumb, but it is not known how long, because where it is seen it cannot be followed to where it ends. It is seen there in the hot lands. No one can follow it to where it ends, because it lies emerging from the crags, the narrow places, the forests; it really emerges from underground.
- Senticolis
canaryswear's latest · 2026-11-05It is as large as the cincoatl. It is herb-green; also spotted. It is really hateful, furious; one which pursues people, which flies at one, which chokes one. It is named tetzmolcoatl because the person or thing about which it coils itself, it never more lets go until it kills it. And it is very strong, very wiry.
- Epictinae
- Scorpion
- Latrodectus
- Tarantula
- Bed bug
- Triatominae
- Jerusalem cricket
- Ant
- Fire ant
- Velvet ant
- Pseudomyrmex
- Army ant
- Liometopum apiculatum
- Lampropeltis polyzona
- Atta mexicana
- Myrmecocystus
- Blister beetle
- Horned lizard
- Spirobolida
- Click beetle
- Dung beetle
- Eleodes
- Opiliones
- Bumblebee
- Geotrigona
- Brachygastra mellifica
- Butterfly
- Swallowtail butterfly
- Battus philenor
- Dione moneta
- Leptophobia aripa
- Eacles
- Polyommatinae
- Parides
- Vanessa atalanta
- Grasshopper
- Locust
- Sphenarium
- Romaleidae
- Pallid-winged grasshopper
- Xanthippus (grasshopper)
- Cicada
- Arphia
- Tent caterpillar
- Megalopyge opercularis
- Automeris
- Geometer moth
- Aegiale hesperiaris
- Maguey worm
- Necator americanus
- Ascaris lumbricoides
- Citheronia
- Scarabaeidae
- Helicoverpa zea
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