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Can anybody provide either a tentative or positive i.d. on this, please.

The photo was taken on the Mananggol river (a tributary of the Kinabatangan River), in Sabah, Borneo, at the beginning of October 2005. The snake was in foliage about 8 feet above the surface.

I suspect the genus Boiga, and the dark stripe between the eye and the joint of the mouth is leading me towards Boiga cynadon (the Dog-toothed Cat Snake), although the colouration isn't consistent with any species accounts I have read.

Many thanks

Dave

[bleep]e, That is one beautiful snake. Im from Peninsular Msia. Certainly looks like a boiga but what boiga? Some of the species in Borneo are not found here in Peninsular. Could be something different from the norm. It doesnt really look like a cynodon, even the head shape is more ike a nigriceps or mangrove. Hmmm... I think it's a subspecies of the dendrophila family. There are several dendrophila species with different latin names I cant remember. One of my frenz who's a wholesaler brought back a mangrove from Borneo which has a different colouration, greyish tone rather than black with thinner rings. Looking at ur picture, it could be that or another dendrophila subspecies. Definitely rare. You got a great shot! Wish I was there

Thanks 'boigamaniac'. I appreciate the huge difficulties in trying to make id's purely from photographs. There's only one way to positively i.d. a snake and thats usually by scale counts and other features that can only be determined in the hand, and I only photograph in the field! I'll try to follow up some of your suggestions. I wish I was back there now! Much better than working for a living, but it's working for a living that allows me to travel to places like that. Bit of a vicious circle....
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[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

Just went through my Borneo and Malaysia books. Definitly NOT a Dog toothed cat snake.

My best guess is that it is a form of Slug Snake (Pareas) though the eye stripe presents a problem.

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

Thanks 'rearfang', I appreciate your efforts. I'm going to attempt to follow up your suggestions. Maybe I'll get closer eventually...
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[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

Yo I think I've hit the jackpot. It's a painted mock viper or psammodynates pictus. Certainly has the eyes, black bar on the face and dark dorsal area. U're damn lucky man, it's not a common snake.

Hi 'boigamaniac'! Sorry I haven't responded earlier but I must have forgotten to request email notification, which means I hadn't realised there had been further postings.

I think I have found another photo (which I didn't realise I had taken) which may help. Unfortunately it doesn't look as if I was lucky enough to see a Psammodynastes! The original photo certainly seems to lead towards your conclusion. When looking closely I even imagine I can see the bulge caused by the front teeth. The second (admittedly poor) photo seems to point back to a common Boiga dendrophila, but with extremely unusual coloration, but... being a complete novice on asian snakes I may be totally wrong. Im just getting more and more confused.

What do you think!

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[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

Can you provide any more details on this snake, especially size, and are there any other photos you could posit?

WW

>>Can anybody provide either a tentative or positive i.d. on this, please.
>>
>>The photo was taken on the Mananggol river (a tributary of the Kinabatangan River), in Sabah, Borneo, at the beginning of October 2005. The snake was in foliage about 8 feet above the surface.
>>
>>I suspect the genus Boiga, and the dark stripe between the eye and the joint of the mouth is leading me towards Boiga cynadon (the Dog-toothed Cat Snake), although the colouration isn't consistent with any species accounts I have read.
>>
>>Many thanks
>>
>>Dave
>>
>>
>>
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WW Home

Hi 'WW'. Sorry I haven't responded earlier, I must have forgotten to request an email notification, so didn't realise there had been further posts on this thread.
I've just discovered another fairly poor quality photo I must have taken whilst approaching the snake. Now I'm really confused!
It looks like a Boiga Dendrophila, but I thought that all dendrophila had a black venter, and that the yellow stripes went further round the body. It was about the same size as the many other dendrophila in adjacent foliage. Enlarging the image in Photoshop shows that the yellow 'blotches' (one can hardly call them stripes' are between 1 and 2 scale rows wide, and the black is either 4 or 5 scale rows wide between the yellow. I'm also having trouble reconciling the distinct pattern on the infralabials (as shown in the original picture) with dendrophila. Hope this helps!

Dave

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[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

What does anyone think of the suggestion of Lycodon albofuscus????
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[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

>>What does anyone think of the suggestion of Lycodon albofuscus????
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>>[email}d.mangham@virgin.net[/email]

Definitely not a Lycodon, these have long narrow heads and small eyes. I'd say it is definitely a Boiga, but need to check out the species ID in the literature.

Cheers,

WW
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