Reptilia · Squamata
Platyceps collarisMüller, 1878
Collared Dwarf Racer
Photograph by katunchik, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating snake from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 119 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Platyceps
- Grows to
- 1190mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 7.5years
Longer than 79% 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
40 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
- 2008
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 7.5years
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 24.6°C
Bar et al. 2021 (at least 7.5 in captivity)
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 855mm2 ft 10 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 582mm23 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1190mm3 ft 11 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 180mm7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 240mm9.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 141.2g5 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 33.2g1.2 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1g0.04 oz
1000 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Naumov et al. 2020: max 119 cm from Jerusalem, at the Steinhardt max is 1150 mm and 800 mm SVL, smallest 180 mm, Eid 2021 (550-980 mm), Bar et al. 2021 (240-1130 mm total length, 1-115 g), 115 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, mean adult female SVL 582.2 mm, SMNH Aug 2023, n = 9, max SVL 855 mm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Shrubland
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1500m
- Range size
- 188,109km²
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
Active (Feldman 2015, Bar et al. 2021)
Scharf et al. 2015, SM, pers. obs., Eid 2021, Bar et al. 2021
Arboreal&Terrestrial (Feldman 2015, SM, pers. obs.), arboreal and saxicolous and terrestrial (Bar et al. 2021)
IUCN (0 to 1500)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 4eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–10eggs
- Mean clutch
- 9.5eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
mean 9.5 (Scharf et al. 2015), 2-6 (Geniez 2018), 6 (Milchev 2021; n = 1), 2-5 (Eid 2021), 3-5 (Bar et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Platyceps collaris collaris (MÜLLER 1878) Platyceps collaris rubriceps VENZMER 1919
- Described by
- Müller
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1878
- Type locality
- Azerbaijan
Keeping one
3 ft 11 in × 23.5 in × 5 ft 10 in(119 × 60 × 179 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 × 1.5.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 3 ft 11 in (1190 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Collared Dwarf Racer. 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.
16kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 141 g, the heaviest recorded for Collared Dwarf Racer — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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). Platyceps collaris. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/platyceps-collaris
@misc{platyceps_collaris_2026,
title = {Platyceps collaris},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/platyceps-collaris}
}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.