Reptilia · Squamata
Malpolon insignitusGeoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827
Eastern Montpellier Snake
Photograph by Benny Trapp, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 208 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Malpolon
- Grows to
- 2083mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 25years
Longer than 95% of all species in Psammophiidae 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 380 to 2,500 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
38 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
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 25years
Bar et al. 2021 (25 years in captivity)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 1700mm5 ft 7 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 1108mm3 ft 8 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2083mm6 ft 10 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 217mm8.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 260mm10 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 1173.7g2.6 lb
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 359.6g12.7 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 4g0.14 oz
2080 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 200 cm (Naumov et al. 2020), 2083 (Steinhardt Museum, specimen #18296 with 1700 mm SVL), 1300-2300 (Eid 2021, I doubt it), 260-2083 mm total length, 4-1800 g (Bar et al. 2021), 3280 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, mean female SVL 1108 mm, SMNH Aug 2023, n = 12, min 180 mm - doubtful, 2nd smallest 217 mm), Trape 2023 (100-182 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (110-182 cm, hatchlings 20-33 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
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 40–2500m
- Range size
- 1,783,401km²
birds, insects, rodents and lizards (Kamali 2020), lizards, snakes, mammals, birds (Eid 2021, Bar et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), diverse (Dunayev and Orlova 2023), mainly lizards but very diverse (Trape 2023), juveniles also eat arthropods (Spawls et al. 2023)
Active (Glaudas et al. 2019, Spawls et al. 2023)
(Kamali 2020, Shai Meiri, Personal observations, Eid 2021, Trape 2023), strictly diurnal (Bar et al. 2021), diurnal, crepuscular in summer (Dunayev and Orlova 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)
terrestrial (Shai Meiri, personal observations), partially arboreal (Eid 2021), terrestrial and arboreal (Bar et al. 2021), terrestrial but climbs well (Spawls et al. 2023)
50-2500 (Kamali 2020), 40-1600 (Shai Meiri, personal observation), 0-200 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 4–20eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
6-20 (Eid 2021), 4-18 (Bar et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), 5-20 (Dunayev and Orlova 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Malpolon insignitus insignitus (GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE 1809) Malpolon insignitus fuscus (FLEISCHMANN 1831)
- Described by
- Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Algeria
Keeping one
22 ft 4 in × 22 ft 4 in × 22 ft 4 in(680 × 680 × 680 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 5 ft 7 in (1700 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Eastern Montpellier Snake. 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.
105kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,174 g, the heaviest recorded for Eastern Montpellier 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 · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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 Psammophiidae
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). Malpolon insignitus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/malpolon-insignitus
@misc{malpolon_insignitus_2026,
title = {Malpolon insignitus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/malpolon-insignitus}
}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.