Reptilia · Squamata
Masticophis mentovariusDuméril, Bibron, Duméril, 1854
Neotropical Whip Snake
Photograph by Redes campesinas “La yunta", CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 200 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Masticophis
- Grows to
- 2000mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 14.9years
Longer than 95% 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
29 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
- 2013
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 14.9years
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2000mm6 ft 7 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 610.5g1.3 lb
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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2310m
"It feeds on lizards, snakes, frogs, birds, bird eggs, mammals, and even fish" (Gallo-Gutierrez et al. 2021), rodents, juveniles eat arthropods (Zeas and Alvarado 2015)
Active (Leenders 2019)
(Leenders 2019, Zeas and Alvarado 2015), "Masticophis mentovarius is terrestrially active during the early part of the day, and it occasionally climbs onto low vegetation to rest or in search of prey (Campbell 1998; Savage 2002)" (Gallo-Gutierrez et al. 2021).
(Leenders 2019), "Masticophis mentovarius is terrestrially active during the early part of the day, and it occasionally climbs onto low vegetation to rest or in search of prey (Campbell 1998; Savage 2002)" (Gallo-Gutierrez et al. 2021).
NSL-450 (Leenders 2019), 0-250 (Señaris & Rojas-Runjaic 2020), 0-2000 (Feldman 2015), 1245 (Gallo-Gutierrez et al. 2021 who state records of 2500 m are in error), 2301 max (their new data; Villalobos-Juarez and Garcia-Padilla 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 13eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–30eggs
- Mean clutch
- 18.5eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Ray 2017
1-30 (Ray 2017), mean=18.5 (Feldman 2015), 7-30 (Zeas and Alvarado 2015)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Masticophis mentovarius centralis ROZE 1953 Masticophis mentovarius mentovarius (DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854) Masticophis mentovarius suborbitalis (PETERS 1868) Masticophis mentovarius striolatus (MERTENS 1934) Masticophis mentovarius variolosus (SMITH 1943)
- Described by
- Duméril, Bibron, Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
6 ft 7 in × 3 ft 3 in × 4 ft 11 in(200 × 100 × 150 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 6 ft 7 in (2000 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 Neotropical Whip 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.
59kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 611 g, the heaviest recorded for Neotropical Whip 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 · greatest recorded
- — 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
- — 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 · 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
- — 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
- — Venomous
- — 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
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
- — Range size
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). Masticophis mentovarius. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-mentovarius
@misc{masticophis_mentovarius_2026,
title = {Masticophis mentovarius},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/masticophis-mentovarius}
}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.