Added 6 May 2007. Last updated 20 February 2014: updated details and Bibliography.
A monotypic genus. This species is a harmless forest dweller and apparently quite rare. Rodents and the odd gecko are suggested as its typical diet. Little appears to be otherwise known about this species, which seems a pity as in some ways it would appear to make a reasonably good candidate for captive breeding.
Boulenger gives the following characteristics for the genus: maxillary and dentary bones bent inward anteriorly; the five anterior maxillary teeth increase in size, 4th and 5th being very large and fang-like, followed after an interval by 15 small equal teeth; anterior mandibular teeth strongly enlarged; head very distinct from neck, depressed; eye large with vertically elliptical pupil; body compressed; scales smooth, without pits, in 15 rows, those of middle row enlarged; ventrals with a lateral keel; tail moderate (but see note for H. modestum), subcaudals in two rows; hypapophyses developed throughout the vertebral column.
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Scientific Name |
Common Name |
Distribution |
Size |
Notes |
|
Hormonotus |
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H. modestum |
Yellow Forest Snake |
Africa, from Guinea, Congo and N Angola to Uganda and Kenya: poss. also Rwanda |
Max 85cm, avg 40-70cm: tail length % of TL approx 25% (m) to 20% (f) |
Found at altitudes from sea level to 1,300m in forest or recently deforested country. Mostly nocturnal and terrestrial. Scalation details: rostral twice as broad as deep, scarcely visible from above; internasals as long as broad, shorter than the prefrontals; frontal twice as long as broad, as long as parietals; loreal twice as long as deep; 1 preocular; 3 postoculars (Boulenger states 2-3); temporals 2-3 (occasionally 2-2 on one side); 8 supralabials, of which 3rd, 4th and 5th (Boulenger states also 4th and 5th) enter the eye; infralabials 9, of which 4 (Boulenger says 4-5) contact the anterior chin shields, which are longer than posterior chin shields. Dorsal scalation: smooth, 15 rows at midbody, of which vertebral row is enlarged; Boulenger states that scales of the vertebral row are hexagonal. Ventral scalation: 220-244 ventrals; anal plate not divided. Subcaudals: 78-103, paired. Other: SHDA describe head as "pear-shaped" with square snout; eyes large, iris pale, pupil vertical; body cylindrical; tail proportionately long (nearly a quarter of body length in some cases). Coloration: overall yellow, yellow-brown or grey-brown; dorsal head scales usually white-edged; each supralabial usually has a dark spot; ventrally yellow or cream. Reproduction details: none available [SOURCES: SHDA, Schmidt & Noble] |
Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa by Stephen Spawls, Kim Howell, Robert Drewes and James Ashe, Academic Press London 2002.
Contributions to the Herpetology of the Belgian Congo, Karl P Schmidt and G K Noble, 1922 (SSAR 1998 reprint).
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