Reptilia · Squamata
Atractaspis irregularisReinhardt, 1843
Mole Viper
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 660 mm nose to tail.
Also called Variable Burrowing Asp.
Reptilia › Squamata › Atractaspididae › Atractaspis
- Grows to
- 660mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial
Longer than 53% of all species in Atractaspididae anyone has measured.
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 200 to 1,280 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
31 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
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 405mm16 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 395mm15.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 660mm2 ft 2 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 69.94g2.5 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 18.4g0.65 oz
660 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 44.7 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History), female SVL 395 mm, SMNH Jan 2023, n = 1, Trape 2023 (30-66 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (30-66 cm, possibly larger)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2000m
- Range size
- 7,266,398km²
rodents, lizards and small snakes (Trape 2023), rodents and small reptiles (Spawls et al. 2023)
Spawls et al. 2018
Spawls et al. 2018, Trape 2023
600-1800 (Spawls et al. 2018), 500-2000 (Ineich et al. 2015), 600-2000 (Kenya Reptile Atlas http://kenyareptileatlas.com/), 0-1800 (Feldman 2015, Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 6
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 6eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Spawls et al. 2023
the single figure reported — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
6, n=1 (Spawls et al. 2018, Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Atractaspis irregularis angeli LAURENT 1950 Atractaspis irregularis bipostocularis BOULENGER 1905 Atractaspis irregularis irregularis (REINHARDT 1843) Atractaspis irregularis parkeri LAURENT 1945 Atractaspis irregularis uelensis LAURENT 1945
- Described by
- Reinhardt
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1843
- Type locality
- Ghana
Keeping one
5 ft 4 in × 5 ft 4 in × 3 ft 4 in(162 × 162 × 101 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 8 in (20 cm) deep.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 16 in (405 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 Mole Viper. 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.
9kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 70 g, the heaviest recorded for Mole Viper — 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
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — 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 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
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Atractaspididae
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). Atractaspis irregularis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/atractaspis-irregularis
@misc{atractaspis_irregularis_2026,
title = {Atractaspis irregularis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/atractaspis-irregularis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.