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Can anyone identify this species past the genus?

She was sold as a harmless egg-eating snake several years ago. The snake is about 5 years old now in these pictures.

When she was little, I took her to several people, and no one could help me. Even the zoo told me she was just a brown vine snake. She is NOT a vine snake of any sort. I've tried the internet, and books including one of bill branch's field guides. I have narrowed her to Psammophis sp, but I can't find enough information beyond that to get a positive id and life history including venom information. I know several in this genus are pretty mild, but a few have been getting alot of attetion lately as being closer to true venomous species.

She feeds on frozen thawed small mice that are layed on a log. She'll eat 1-3 a week, and won't take anything larger than a hopper. She eats as she wants to, and is remarkably fat for a sand racer-type (better fat and happy than hungry and aggressive). She bites and holds them in her teath, then swallows them down.

Also, she exhibits the behavior of GROOMING! She is one of the few in the genus that coats her scales with a nasal secretion. Often she does this after a meal.

Of all the snakes I've found that do this, none look quite like her.

Please help me end the 5-year mystery. If anyone on here knows a better place to ask for information, I am open to suggestions! Thanks for all of your effort ahead of time!

I think it is a Cape Sand Snake, Psammophis l. leightoni. According to Branch, the top of the head is spotted or barred. Yours looks barred. The picture in the upper right corner of plate 23 looks an awful lot like your snake. I don't know anything about the toxicity of the venom, & Branch does not seem to discuss that.

~~Greg~~

Psammophis sp. have rather large venom glands and can produce large quantities of venom (for a rear-fang anyway). While the potential for a life-threatening bite is highly unlikely, it would be best advised to treat these guys with a bit of caution.

Greg,

I agree that it almost certainly a Psammophis I was thinking P. subtaeniatus orientalis on plate 99. The whole genus is so variable...I sure i'd want locality data and scales counts for a postive id though.
As for the venom it seems that local swelling, itching and pain are fairly normal for the genus (See a Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa (incidently a great book).

Regards,
Scott Eipper

Scott: You're right about needing precise locality & scale count to be certain. Judging just from the photographs, I still have to lean toward leightoni. The Stripe-bellied has markings on the neck that do not appear on the subject snake. Also, if the colors in the photos in the book & on the post are true, the match seems to be leightoni.
BTW, in the edition I have, subtaeniatus is on plate 22, leightoni on 23. You must have a different edition. I wonder if the photos are the same.

All the best, mate! ~~Greg~~

I just went over everything from South Africa, East Africa, North West Africa through the Middle East and down to India.

The Cape. Would love to see a belly shot on that, as some of my sources mentioned a Mottled Line down the center of the belly of that sps. The head is closest to a juv pic I have in another South African book but none (including Branch) have quite the right pattern of banding on the head.

As for P.s.occidentalis. The head is too slender in profile. The is (in my photos) an extention of the body stripe through the eye to the nose The stripes are the wrong color and are too uniform in color (note the dark outline to every dorsal scale in the top color zone that are not there in the PSO). The top dorsal stripe is reduced to a width of two scales as opposed to 5 on this snake. The light stripe is way too wide and white. The belly is UNIFORM GREY.

The Olive; P. phillipsi. Closest match in my opinion. Note that it has the black edging to the dorsal scales sometimes forming thin black lines (read discription on page 73 pl 23 in my edition of Branch), bands are closest in proportion and color (taking in age and variation). The belly can be white or YELLOW.

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

I have not handled her since I discovered she wasn't what she seemed to be several years ago. Therefore, I'm not too sure how to get a belly shot. She's far to fast to use a hook with. From memory, she has a yellow belly that is clearly boarded in white.It only is rough near her head, as in the one picture where she is off the ground.

I used to think she was P. subtaeniatus myself, as the picture on a site called fishing owl was very close to her. I never was sure though. http://fosaf.org.za/sasnakesbackfanged5.html

Then I thought she might be P. sibilans, as the EMBL database has an almost exact picture (number 3). I still am not sure. http://srs.embl-heidelberg.de:8000/srs5bin/cgi-bin/wgetz?-e [REPTILIA-Species:'Psammophis_SP_sibilans']

As for the other species, I've never seen a good picture of that species that looks like her. I need to get that book and see.
I can take a scale count from her next shed if someone has a good key.

"A yellow belly that is clearly bordered in white."

P. phillipsi: The belly is YELLOW EDGED IN WHITE (sometimes with black streaks).

Note that P. phillipsi (according to Branch) is similar to siblans except that in:

P. siblans the belly is OFF WHITE-sometimes with grey bands.

P. subtaeniatus the belly is YELLOW with BLACK EDGED STRIPES bordering it.

Definitly a conclusive description of your snake's belly is needed I do have a key, so scale counts would be appreciated.

Checking photos on P. phillipsi, the Branch photo seems the most compelling.

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

Scale counts will not differentiate leightoni & phillipsi. The only key I can see is that in leightoni the posterior nasal scale is divided, while it is "usually undivided" in phillipsi.

~~Greg~~

Lest my eyes fool me it looks like the posterier nasal is undivided in this snake.

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

Greg and Frank,

Field Guide to Snakes and other reptiles of Southern Africa third edition, 1998 (its tag line...fully revised and updated to include 83 new species) published by Struik.

The pics on plate 22 of P. subtaeniatus subtaeniatus (info on page 91 look nothing like the plate 98 P. s orientalis.

According to Sprawls et al 2002 what was known to be called P. phillipsi and P. sibilans are now known as P.mossambicus ....key feature : "usually no head Markings".

P. orientalis (appears that the this was elevated to full specific status in this book from P. subtaeniatus)... "fairly large, faintly striped, usually with conspicuous yellow lips. Belly with 2 well defined black or brown broad longitudinal lines, belly uniform yellow or yellow between the lines and white on outside".

Does mention intermediate forms (between P. mossambicus and P. orientalis) from the East Coast are known and that species diagnosis is not clear cut.

As for how to get photos of the underside...place snake of piece of glass with a bowl over the top and take photo from underneath the glass.

Regards,
Scott

Interesting (I have not seen that book) This is not going to be easy as I (in ref to above) found pics of phillipsi on line that bore head markings.

By the way, I am using

Branch (1st printing)
Maris (1992)A COMPLETE FIELDGUIDE

So you have me on the updates Scott.

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