Reptilia · Squamata
Hemiaspis dameliiGünther, 1876
Grey Snake
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 600 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Hemiaspis
- Grows to
- 600mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than only 18% of all elapid 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 219 to 5,710 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
40 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
- Endangered
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2017
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- Red List criteria
- B2ab(iii)
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 605mm24 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 380.2mm15 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 600mm23.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 402mm16 in
- Largest male · snout to vent
- 432mm17 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 140mm5.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 14.5mm0.6 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 85.44g3 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 23.75g0.84 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 2.34g0.08 oz
600 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), "Ngabi is a relatively small elapid (mean snout–vent length = 42.6 cm, max = 60 cm) (Shine 1987)" (Michael et al. 2023, who go on to provide measurements: 24 Males: SVL 41.78 (34.90–50.10) cm, TL 49.02 (42.00–60.20) cm, mass 37.10 (25.00–60.00); 15 Females 32.83 (17.60–44.20) cm SVL, TL 37.73 (19.50–51.50) SVL, mass 23.75 (3.00–59.00) g), Shine 1994 (56 males 26.6-60.5, mean 40.2 cm SVL; 34 females 34.5-57.5, mean 43.2 cm SVL; hatchling SVL 140 mm)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 12–1123m
- Range size
- 311,317km²
mostly frogs (Michael et al. 2023)
"Ngabi was observed actively foraging on the surface" (Michael et al. 2023)
Crepuscular (Shine 1987c), crepuscular and nocturnal (Michael et al. 2023)
Shine 1987c
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 10.3eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 10.3eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
4-16 mean=10.3 n=8 (Shine 1987c, is what's written for H. sgnata in Shine 1977 actually this species? Numbers are the same), 4-16 (Michael et al. 2023 citing Shine 1987), Shine 1994 (4-16, mean 10.3, n = 8 clutches)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1876
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
Grey Snake is assessed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.
23.5 in × 12 in × 17.5 in(60 × 30 × 45 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 23.5 in (600 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 Grey 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.
10kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 85 g, the heaviest recorded for Grey 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
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — 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 the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Elapidae
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). Hemiaspis damelii. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hemiaspis-damelii
@misc{hemiaspis_damelii_2026,
title = {Hemiaspis damelii},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hemiaspis-damelii}
}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.