Mambas, of the genus Dendroaspis, are fast-moving land-dwelling snakes of Africa. ("Dendroaspis" is literally "tree snake".) They belong to the family of Elapidae which includes cobras, coral snakes, kraits and, debatably, sea snakes although these are now classed as Hydrophiidae, all of which can be extremely deadly. The Western green mamba (D. viridis) , possess venom that is roughly equal in potency to that of the Black mamba (D. polylepis). However, they are not nearly as aggressive. They are slightly smaller, and are arboreal, whereas the latter is primarily terrestrial.