Reptilia · Squamata
Limaformosa capensisSmith, 1847
Cape File Snake
Photograph by le0p0ld_d, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 175 cm nose to tail.
Also called Common File Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lamprophiidae › Limaformosa
- Grows to
- 1750mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 10.9years
Longer than 99% of all species in Lamprophiidae 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 235 to 1,750 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
32 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 10.9years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1612mm5 ft 3 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1750mm5 ft 9 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 405mm16 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 517.4g1.1 lb
1750 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 1000-1700 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 1311 mm in males, 1612 mm in females; hatchlings 390-420 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults average 0.7-1.2 m, max 1.75 cm, hatchlings 29-45 cm), Trape 2023 (70-170 cm)
snakes only in this source
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
- Forest, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 500–1500m
reptiles and amphibians (Pietersen et al. 2021), mainly snakes, also lizarsd and amphibians (Marais 2022), mainly snakes, also lizards (Trape 2023)
Active (Glaudas et al. 2019)
(Bates et al. 2014, Murphy et al. 2003, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022, Trape 2023), emerges at dusk (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Marais 2022)
(Bates et al. 2014, Murphy et al. 2003, Trape 2023), mostly terrestrial, occasionally climbs (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022)
throughout Malawi below 1500 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017) so I list 500-1500
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 9eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–13eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Mallow et al. 2003
5-11 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 5-13 (Marais 2005, Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Branch 1998, Pietersen et al. 2021), 3-13 (Marais 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Smith
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1847
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
5 ft 9 in × 2 ft 10 in × 4 ft 4 in(175 × 88 × 131 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 5 ft 9 in (1750 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 Cape File 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.
51kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 517 g, the heaviest recorded for Cape File 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
- — 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
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — 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
- — 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
- — Range size
Others in Lamprophiidae
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). Limaformosa capensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/limaformosa-capensis
@misc{limaformosa_capensis_2026,
title = {Limaformosa capensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/limaformosa-capensis}
}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.