All Angles Creatures
Squamata · XenodermidaeEntry 177 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Achalinus quangiPham, Pham, Le, Ngo, Ong, Ziegler, Nguyen, 2023

Quang’s Odd-Scaled Snake

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Oriental region, reaching 411 mm nose to tail.

ReptiliaSquamataXenodermidaeAchalinus

Grows to
411mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Nocturnal
Lives
Terrestrial
Body length across Xenodermidae

Longer than only 31% of all species in Xenodermidae anyone has measured.

31% of 35 species are smaller69% larger
177.9 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest870 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 177.9 to 870 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

20 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant

The animal itself

Limbs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
295mm11.5 in

Pham et al. 2023 (max 295 mm SVL, 411 mm TL; 2 females 289 & 254 mm SVL; 370 and 344.5 mm TL)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
271.5mm10.5 in
Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
411mm16 in

snakes only in this source

Female length · mean, nose to tail
357.3mm14 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
11.68g0.41 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Dietcomputed
Carnivorous

no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes

Active
Nocturnal

"Snakes were usually found at night between 19:00 and 21:00, on the ground, near a stream, and on forest paths. The juvenile from Ha Tinh Province was found during day time below a stone in a dried-out stream bed." (Pham et al. 2023) so I assume Nocturnal

Where it lives
Terrestrial

"Snakes were usually found at night between 19:00 and 21:00, on the ground, near a stream, and on forest paths. The juvenile from Ha Tinh Province was found during day time below a stone in a dried-out stream bed." (Pham et al. 2023) so I assume terrestrial

Region
Oriental
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
390–850m

399-850 (Pham et al. 2023)

Naming and history

Suborder
Serpentes
Infraorder
Alethinophidia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Pham, Pham, Le, Ngo, Ong, Ziegler, Nguyen
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2023
Type locality
Vietnam

Keeping one

3 ft 10 in × 3 ft 10 in × 2 ft 5 in(118 × 118 × 74 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 11.5 in (295 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Quang’s Odd-Scaled Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 12 g, the heaviest recorded for Quang’s Odd-Scaled Snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Venomous
  • Fangs
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Biome
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Range size

Others in Xenodermidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Achalinus quangi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/achalinus-quangi

@misc{achalinus_quangi_2026,
  title  = {Achalinus quangi},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/achalinus-quangi}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  3. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.