Reptilia · Squamata
Psammophis cruciferDaudin, 1803
Montane Grass Snake
Photograph by amantedarmanin, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 822 mm nose to tail.
Also called Cross-marked Grass Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Psammophis
- Grows to
- 822mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
Longer than only 19% of all species in Psammophiidae 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 380 to 2,500 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
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
- 2021
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 585mm23 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 822mm2 ft 8 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 190mm7.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 76.65g2.7 oz
822 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 324-585, mean 424.56 ± 78.27, n = 9; female SVL: mean 434 ± 107.43, range 324-585, n = 5), Marais 2022 (adults average 30-50 cm, max 82.2 cm, hatchlings 18-20 cm)
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
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Montane Grasslands & Savannas
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 3000m
- Range size
- 871,744km²
predominantly "small vertebrates inclusive of frogs, lizards, small mammals, and even other snakes" but 79% lizards in his data (Tokota 2020), arthropods and reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), lizards, frogs and snakes (Marais 2022)
Active (Glaudas et al. 2019, van Huyssteen 2023)
Feldman 2015, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022
Arboreal&Terrestrial (Feldman 2015), terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022)
from coastal areas to perhaps 3000 (Bates et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 8.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–13eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
4-10, n=12 (Cottone & Bauer 2010), 3-13 (Marais 2005, Marais 2022), max 13 (Tokota 2020)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Daudin
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1803
- Type locality
- Indes orientales.
Keeping one
7 ft 8 in × 7 ft 8 in × 7 ft 8 in(234 × 234 × 234 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 snout-vent length of 23 in (585 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Montane Grass Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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.
9kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 77 g, the heaviest recorded for Montane Grass 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 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
- — Colour on the back
- — 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 Psammophiidae
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). Psammophis crucifer. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-crucifer
@misc{psammophis_crucifer_2026,
title = {Psammophis crucifer},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-crucifer}
}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.