Reptilia · Squamata
Eristicophis macmahoniAlcock & Finn, 1897
Asian sand viper
Photograph by Tad Arensmeier from St. Louis, MO, USA, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 719 mm nose to tail.
Also called McMahons Desert Viper.
Reptilia › Squamata › Viperidae › Eristicophis
- Grows to
- 719mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 25years
Longer than only 36% of all vipers 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 280 to 3,900 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
33 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Two of these figures disagree
Length snout to vent (adult female mean) is given as 650, and Length snout to vent (greatest recorded) as 542 — but an average female cannot be longer than the longest recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2019
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 25years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 719mm2 ft 4 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 705mm2 ft 4 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 199.6g7 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 177.6g6.3 oz
- Length snout to vent · greatest recordeddisputed
- 542mm21.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female meandisputed
- 650mm2 ft 2 in
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
719 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), max 70 cm total length (Kamali 2020), 244 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, mean female SVL 650 mm, SMNH Aug 2023, n = 2, TL 705, n = 1
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 500m
- Range size
- 146,395km²
birds, lizards, and rodents (Kamali 2020)
Banfi et al. 2023
Kamali 2020
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 9eggs
- Largest clutch recorded
- 12eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Kamali 2020
<=12 (Mallow et al. 2003, O'Shea 2011)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Alcock & Finn
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1897
- Type locality
- Pakistan
Keeping one
2 ft 4 in × 14 in × 21 in(72 × 36 × 54 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
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 (719 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Asian sand viper. 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.
22kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 200 g, the heaviest recorded for Asian sand 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
- — 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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Smallest 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
- — 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
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Viperidae
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). Eristicophis macmahoni. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eristicophis-macmahoni
@misc{eristicophis_macmahoni_2026,
title = {Eristicophis macmahoni},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eristicophis-macmahoni}
}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.