Reptilia · Squamata
Meizodon semiornatusPeters, 1854
Semiornate Smooth Snake
Photograph by John Lyakurwa, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 800 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Meizodon
- Grows to
- 800mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 59% 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
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 600mm23.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 800mm2 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 190mm7.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 60.51g2.1 oz
800 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 400-780, reports of up to 900 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (Max SVL 455 mm in males, 600 mm in females), Marais 2022 (adults average 40-60 cm, max 80 cm, hatchling 18-20 cm), Trape 2023 (30-76 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (40-80, hatchlings 18-20 cm TL)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2200m
- Range size
- 3,166,884km²
lizards, frogs and rodents (Pietersen et al. 2021, Trape 2023), mainly lizards, also frogs and rodents (Marais 2022, Spawls et al. 2023), lizards and frogs (Malonza and Bwong 2023)
Shy and diurnal (Branch 1998, Pietersen et al. 2021), diurnal (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023), largely diurnal but may be active at dusk (Marais 2022, Spawls et al. 2023)
(Marais 2004, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 2023), terrestrial and leaf litter - can climb (Marais 2022)
0-2200 (Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2.5
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–3eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
2-3 (Marais 2005, Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022, Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Meizodon semiornatus semiornatus (PETERS 1854) Meizodon semiornatus tchadensis (CHABANAUD 1917)
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Kenya
Keeping one
2 ft 7 in × 15.5 in × 23.5 in(80 × 40 × 60 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 7 in (800 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 Semiornate Smooth 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.
8kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 61 g, the heaviest recorded for Semiornate Smooth 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
- — 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 it hunts
- — 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
- — 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
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). Meizodon semiornatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/meizodon-semiornatus
@misc{meizodon_semiornatus_2026,
title = {Meizodon semiornatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/meizodon-semiornatus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.