Reptilia · Squamata
Psammodynastes pulverulentusBoie, 1827
Common Mock Viper
Photograph by portioid, CC BY, via iNaturalist
An active by day or night, meat-eating lizard from the Oriental region, reaching 770 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammodynastidae › Psammodynastes
- Grows to
- 770mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
What is known
32 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
- Colour on the back
- Brown
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 770mm2 ft 6 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 165mm6.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 101.1g3.6 oz
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
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2000m
- Range size
- 5,569,046km²
frogs, lizards and snakes (Malsawmdawngliana et al. 2022, Cox et al. 2012), mostly skinks, also frogs and snakes (Greene 1989)
Active (Glaudas et al. 2019)
Diurnal (Malsawmdawngliana et al. 2022; n = 1), nocturnal (Maury et al. 2022, n = 1, Pham et al. 2022, n = 1), cathemeral (Cox et al. 2012)
"scansorial (climber)" (Gearty et al. 2021), Terrestrial and arboreal (Duc et al. 2021), on a tree (Maury et al. 2022, n = 1, Pham et al. 2022 n = 1), terrestrial but also a good climber (Cox et al. 2012)
1318 (Malsawmdawngliana et al. 2022), 430 (Maury et al. 2022), 0-2000 (Cox et al. 2012)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–10eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Cox et al. 2012
3-10 (Whitaker and Captain 2004, Cox et al. 2012)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Psammodynastes pulverulentus papenfussi ZHAO 1995 Psammodynastes pulverulentus pulverulentus (BOIE 1827)
- Described by
- Boie
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Indonesia
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.
12kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 101 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Mock Viper — 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
- — 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 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
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — 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 Psammodynastidae
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). Psammodynastes pulverulentus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammodynastes-pulverulentus
@misc{psammodynastes_pulverulentus_2026,
title = {Psammodynastes pulverulentus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammodynastes-pulverulentus}
}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.