Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How about a common name "Rat Snake"?

Royal Diadem Rat Snake (Spalerosophis diadema atriceps)

-----
-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Cool snake. Am I seeing "keeled" scales on that guy?

Are you still keeping those, Toby?

>>Cool snake. Am I seeing "keeled" scales on that guy?
>>
>>Are you still keeping those, Toby?

Yes, I still have a mismatched pair - the male "Royal Diadem" in that pic and a female which is most likely S. d. cliffordi IMO. The guy who produced the female is a regular at Texas shows, so I am hoping he will produe some more so I can get a mate for her. Royals are not too hard to find, although getting a single female may be somewhat of a challenge.

They are still very small, but yes I believe they have somewhat keeled scales - it does look like it in the pic too. I will be able to tell better by feel when they are bigger. They are interesting snakes to handle - the male atriceps is very hissy, but not too bad to handle aside from that. The female "cliffordi" is much less willing to be handled, and bites a lot - along with hissing (they hiss through their nostrils BTW, with the mouth closed). She has become a problematic feeder - whereas the male atriceps is a great, un-picky feeder.
-----
-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Thanks.

I like that male atriceps a lot. I'd like to see you get a female for him. I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

TC

>>Thanks.
>>
>>I like that male atriceps a lot. I'd like to see you get a female for him. I'll keep my eyes and ears open.
>>
>>TC

Thanks Terry!

I may be able to get a female for him from the same folks I got him from, but not definitely - so I could sure use the help. He has really grown on me - very different from everything else I've kept, including Old World rat-racers and New World racers. Brad Sillasen (Monklet) has an adult which is awesome looking. One of the things I like about this species is the dramatic ontogenesis from sort of a Texas rat look to a really randomly patterned calico-like look, but heavy on black and orange...

I'd like to see this subspecies and other subs of S. diadema become a bit more popular - a very under-represented and under-appreciated species IMO. In contrast to our New World racers, this species seems to do okay and settle into fairly small caging, i.e. tubs in racks - provided they have enough ventilation, good hides and a good temp gradient...
-----
-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

I've never noticed keeled scales on my large atriceps ...I'll have to find here today and check more closely
-----
See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

>>I've never noticed keeled scales on my large atriceps ...I'll have to find here today and check more closely
>>-----
>> See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Weird looking color/pattern on that guy. I wonder what kind of habitat they're adapted to. Can you get a closeup view of some mid-dorsal scale rows? Tanks...

Terry