Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know that I have ever seen a striped Eryx jaculus before. I found this photo of a wild one from Israel. Kind of a neat looking snake.

Striped Eryx jaculus photo

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Perhaps it is crossed with a Ruffie?

Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles

>>Perhaps it is crossed with a Ruffie?
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Not likely, since it was a wild animal.

I think this is the same thing that occurs in the patterns of several sandboas. There may be some genetic anomaly that causes darkening of the sides that can end up with a dark backed snaked.

You see it in miliaris (nogaiorum), conicus (whitakeri), jaculus (seen here) and colubrinus (rufescens). I think to understand these pattern anomolies, you have to consider the fact that is occurs in several species in particular pockets of their range.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I've seen several posted in the classifieds, but never as clean a stripe as in the picture.