Reptilia · Squamata
Narophis bimaculatusDuméril, Bibron, Duméril, 1854
Western Black-naped Snake
Photograph by Robert Browne-Cooper, CC BY 4.0, via GBIF
A burrowing, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 468 mm nose to tail.
Also called Black-naped Burrowing Snake.
Once published as Neelaps bimaculatus, Simoselaps bimaculatus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Narophis
- Grows to
- 468mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial
Longer than only 9% 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
34 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
- 2017
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 439mm17.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 333.5mm13 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 468mm18.5 in
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 354mm14 in
- Largest male · snout to vent
- 336mm13 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 140mm5.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 38.9g1.4 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 2.34g0.08 oz
450 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Maryan et al. 2023 (total length, females 229–468, mean 354 (n = 79), males 251–438, mean 335 (n = 64); SVL of females: 215–439 mean 331 (74), males: 224–400, mean 309 mm (n = 60), likely with juveniles), Goodyear and Pianka 2008 (gravid females 405 mm SVL, n = 2), Shine 1994 (25 males 23-40.3, mean 29.3 cm SVL; 22 females 26.4-40.6, mean 33.6 cm SVL; hatchling SVL 140 mm)
snakes only in this source
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
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 16–812m
- Range size
- 672,187km²
a snake (Goodyear and Pianka 2008)
Goodyear and Pianka 2008
Goodyear and Pianka 2008, Maryan et al. 2023
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 4.2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–6eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
mean=4 (Goodyear and Pianka 2008), 2-6 (Cogger 2018), Shine 1994 (2-6, mean 4.2, n = 10 clutches)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Duméril, Bibron, Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
18.5 in × 9.25 in × 14 in(47 × 23 × 35 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 9.25 in (23 cm) deep.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 18.5 in (468 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 Western Black-naped 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.
5kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 39 g, the heaviest recorded for Western Black-naped 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
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Habitat
- — 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). Narophis bimaculatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/narophis-bimaculatus
@misc{narophis_bimaculatus_2026,
title = {Narophis bimaculatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/narophis-bimaculatus}
}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.