Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired this pair from a friend who said they were long-term captives. I did not even check if it was a pair and put them in a cage together. What was interesting is that yesterday I offered one a small live mouse on tongs and the snake struck at the mouse and reared back holding the mouse's head and arms in its mouth, and I was left with the body and legs remaining in the tongs. Now I did not pull back, and it was obvious that the snake sliced the mouse in half with its teeth as it reared back so fast in a nanosecond and easily tore the mouse in half. Neat stuff. And I was going to give these to a friend but kept them for good measure. Look at the next photo in the post below and you will see why I was glad I kept them. The female is getting fat and if anyone knows if they lay eggs or live, let me know. I assume eggs. And if anyone can tell me how to post two pictures on one post, I would appreciate it.

Dan

Breeding:

NP
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

There are very few M. colubrina in US collections. The majority of them are actually mis-identified M. ocellatus, possibly M. meridionalis.

I have a key that I can dig up. I'll try to find it and post here. Feel free to e-mail me if I forget.

Regardless, neat species. I've been lucky enough to keep both.
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Current snakes:

0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

7.6 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

0.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I copied this in from "A Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Madagascar" by Glaw and Vences - 2'nd edition. I don't believe there are copyright issues with my posting it here.

Let me summarize the key for you.

If your snakes don't have a white tip to their tail and/or have 29 to 33 dorsal scale rows they are almost certainly M. ocellatus.

The only M. colubrina without a white tail tip don't have the pattern of your specimens so I can pretty much guarantee you that you don't have M. colubrina.

There are reasons for the confusion that surrounds this genus that I won't get into.

Hope you have a recent shed to count...

1a: 25 to 27 (exceptionally 29) dorsal scale rows; less than 205 ventrals; Madagascar except for south-western regions -- 2

1b: 29 to 33 dorsal scale rows; more than 196 ventrals; south-western Madagascar -- 6

2a: 27 dorsals (exceptionally 25 and 29) -- 3

2b: 25 dorsals; known only from Sambirano -- 5

3a: tail tip not white; east coast -- M. c. colubrinus

3b: tail tip white -- 4

4a: back melanic; west -- M. c. occidentalis

4b: back copper; north -- M. c. septentrionalis

4c: back normal; centre -- M. c. pastoriensis

5a: back melanic; Nosy Komba/Nosy Be -- M. c. insularis

5b: back yellow; Nosy Be -- M. citrinus

6a: back with 43 - 47 large ocellae -- M. ocellatus

6b: back without large ocellae -- M. meridionalis

The text also gives these descriptions for the two southern species:

M. ocellatus: The back is light beige, with 43 - 47 large brown ocellae.

M. meridionalis: Occurs sympatrically with M. ocellatus but seems to be more common and less specialized. The back is typically yellowish. These two southern species are rather similar in scale features but differ in the hemipenis structure, which is bilobate in M. ocellatus and trilobate in M. meridionalis

Thank, I will have to check them out. The adult pair have both of their tips of their tails missing, so I will have to do a check scale counts. Perhaps the babies will have white tiped tails?

I also have three two-year olds that were captive born from gold parents and silver parents, so I need to look at them closer also. Thanks again.

Dan