Hi mate

The reason for the difference in behavious is that the American hognosed and Madagascar hognosed are utterly unrelated. As discussed in the thread just below this, Heterodon species are in the Xenodontinae snake family. Leioheterodon (and all other Madagascar 'colubrids' in fact) are in the Pseudoxyrhophiinae family and are actually 'protoelapids' in that they form a branch on the Colubroidea snake evolution tree just below the Elapidae family. Even more suprising, their nearest neighbors include the very weird Atractaspidae family (with the trippy side opening fangs). The Psammophiinae family (Psammophis, Malpolon, etc) is also 'protoelapid' in this regard and are the other closet branch to the Madagascar snakes.

Cheers
B
Colubroidea snake evolution

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