Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Macrocalamus lateralis - she's nice a and gravid. Known only from the mountain areas of Peninsular Malaysia.

-----
www.naturemalaysia.com - essential guide to herping and snake species in Malaysia
www.naturemalaysia.com - Forums

Is that (Macrocalamus)??,....and if so, is it also known by other names?....I'm having trouble getting a handle on this little guy!. I've found that there are three subspecies if this is what it is.......also, is it related to the "Sunbeam"(Xenopeltis)?,.......I'm thinking there might be some taxonomic confusion with this species, as several "HUGE" encyclopedias I have do not have it listed!, is this the case??..........aside from all that, that is one gorgeous little animal!!! I gotta' tell you......best regards,............Doug

-----
Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

It's some type of Calamaria it looks a little like C lambricoidea, but your looks way more pretty. There are 56 subspices.
Here's a pic of a Collared reed snake, Calamaria pavimentata.

At first I thought so too, but after looking at some books and pictures I have to go with m.lateralis. The head shape and eyes appear to be much different than calamaria lumbricoidea. The body patterns also seem different, though similiar. What takes the cake is that it was taken from above 1,500m and its size is only about 30cm, and this is certainly an adult especially since it's gravid, which matches m. lateralis. However, if someone like Wolgang Wuster could confirm it would be appreciated.

Regards
hans
-----
www.naturemalaysia.com - essential guide to herping and snake species in Malaysia
www.naturemalaysia.com - Forums

Very cool, Hans. Those are burrowing worm eaters, if I understand correctly.

As for what the reed snakes (Calamaria) are, they're colubrids, so not closely related to Xenopeltis.

Cheers,
Billy
Phillyherping.blogspot.com

Hey Billy, how's the going? Long time no hear.

I've just gotten the id for the snake, and I was wrong. It's Macrocalamus schulzi.

Cheers
hans
-----
www.naturemalaysia.com - essential guide to herping and snake species in Malaysia
www.naturemalaysia.com - Forums

If I'm not mistaking "schultzi" is the rarest of the subspecies, having the vivid yellow venter(belly), and the hemipenes being different........good find!!,........Doug
-----
Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

It's only known and found in one place in Peninsular Malaysia, so maybe it could be considered rare in that sense. Anyways the sucker died and left me eggs that were destroyed by fungus within a few days.
Boo hoo....

Cheers
hans
-----
www.naturemalaysia.com - essential guide to herping and snake species in Malaysia
www.naturemalaysia.com - Forums

Wow!!,........she looked so nice and healthy in your photos!.......I guess that was because she was gravid in the pics............that's too bad,I'm assuming it was probably stress related, similar to wild caught Mandarin Ratsnakes. I know a HUGE percentage of imports die. Again, sorry to here she passed,........best regards,.............................Doug
-----
Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

that is quite sad . I was going to guess Macrocal cuz it looks like lateralis ( Thai peninsula ? )very much in the head. What a gorgeous snake you had there ! Will you get more, breed em and make em avail. to us ? I wonder if they are always so yellow . the yellow combine with irirdes. is a winner fiery combo. was it espec. shy of exposure/ handling ? If you have more pics please post sometime.

It's amazing how many unknown, under-rated snakes there are out there, that would be nice to get into the captive scene ( so they aren't wild-caught depleted, of course. Cheers.
-----
Euprepiophis mandarina
Elaphe guttata
Lampropeltis getulus nigritis