Reptilia · Squamata
Dipsadoboa aulicaGünther, 1864
Cross-barred Snake
Photograph by Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
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A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 720 mm nose to tail.
Also called Marbled Tree Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Dipsadoboa
- Grows to
- 720mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than 54% of all colubrid snakes 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 98 to 3,800 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
35 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Brown
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched, uniform
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 660mm2 ft 2 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 720mm2 ft 4 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 180mm7 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 76.01g2.7 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.51g0.05 oz
720 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 403-525, mean 471.5 ± 48.1, n = 8; female SVL: 433-525, mean 489, n = 3), 400-600 but "may well reach 85 cm" (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 660 mm in males, 630 mm in females, neonates 180 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults average 40-60 cm, max 85 cm, hatchlings 18 cm)
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
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 300m
- Range size
- 404,643km²
geckos and tree frogs, although he will also eat toads, skinks and even small rodents (Branch 1998, Pietersen et al. 2021), lizards frogs and rodents (Marais 2022)
This snake shelters during the day in hollow logs, under bark, in thatched roofs, etc., emerging at dusk to feed on geckos and tree frogs, although he will also eat toads, skinks and even small rodents (Branch 1998), nocturnal (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022)
(Harrington et al. 2018, Marais 2022), predominantly arboreal (Pietersen et al. 2021)
NSL to at least 300 (Bates et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–12eggs
- Mean clutch
- 8eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
mean 8 (Meiri et al. 2019), 7-9 (Marais 2005), 7-9 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), 7-8 (Pietersen et al. 2021), 3-12 (Marais 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1864
- Type locality
- Zambezi River
Keeping one
21.5 in × 14 in × 3 ft 7 in(54 × 36 × 108 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
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 total length of 2 ft 4 in (720 mm), at 0.75 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Cross-barred Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
9kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 76 g, the heaviest recorded for Cross-barred 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 female mean
- — 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
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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 Colubridae
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). Dipsadoboa aulica. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dipsadoboa-aulica
@misc{dipsadoboa_aulica_2026,
title = {Dipsadoboa aulica},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dipsadoboa-aulica}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.