Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I bought the snake in the picture about two years ago as a common brown house snake (Lamprophis fuliginosus).

His head always looked a little odd to me: the snout is pretty blunt, and the eyes seem reletively big.

I believe that the head shape is at least partly due to nose rubbing - an issue I haven't been able to solve with this guy.

Can you verify that this indeed a common brown house snake (L. fuliginosus), and not, say, namib house snake (L. mentalis)?

(I'm aware of the fact that at least some consider L. mentalis to be a subspecies of L. fuliginosus: L. f. mentalis. If you accept this classification, then my question is this: is the snake in the pic L. f. fuliginosus, and not L. f. mentalis?)

---

--

That doesn't look like a mentalis to me, it just looks like a fuliginosus with an abnormally short rostrum. The same thing happens in some ratsnakes when they are raised very quickly - they end up with a stubby head rather than a long box-shaped head.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thanks, Chris!