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Here's a few pics of some house snakes I recently aquired. First three pics is an olive phase house snake. Which sub-species I have no idea L.fuliginosus, L. olivaceus?? Chris.H, feel free to chime in if he has any ideas or guesses. The eyes are eliptical on the olive phase animal. And the last series of photos are of what looks to be a typical L. fuliginosus (brown house snake). Steve

>>Here's a few pics of some house snakes I recently aquired. First three pics is an olive phase house snake. Which sub-species I have no idea L.fuliginosus, L. olivaceus??

That first snake doesn't look like an "olive phase" house snake (L. fuliginosus). It looks more like Lamprophis olivaceus, which is better known as the "black" house snake. The name Olive House Snake is usually applied to Lamprophis inornatus.

If it is L. olivaceus, that is cool since I've only ever seen a few photos of them.

Even the dark "Olive phase" brown housesnakes (L. fuliginosus) have white stripes above the eye.

It would be useful if you could find someone familiar the the species of Lamprophis and the color variations within each species. That would have to be someone with experience in central Africa.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Chris, it sounds like your spot on with the ID of my animal. I've been locating more information on house snakes, & Sure enough, the fuliginosus from what I've been able to find, should have an eye stripe. True olive house snakes(L. olivaceus) should have eyes that range from orange to a bright red. and I believe they are listed as having a single anal plate on the vent. It seems more probable that what I have is L.inornatus "The black house snake" or AKA "South African Olive house snake" Below is a link to some good information on many of the subspecies of house snake. I linked page 4/10, but there are more pages of good information starting with 1/10. Thanks for you help with trying to ID some of these snakes. Steve

Link