Reptilia · Squamata
Psammophis lineatusDuméril, Bibron, Duméril, 1854
Gray Grass Snake
Photograph by Lucy Keith-Diagne, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 121 cm nose to tail.
Also called Lined Olympic Snake, Striped Swamp Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Psammophis
- Grows to
- 1210mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Semi-aquatic
Longer than 54% 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
31 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
- 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
- 880mm2 ft 11 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1210mm4 ft
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 217.8g7.7 oz
1200 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), 700-1200 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 880 mm in males, 768 mm in females), Trape 2023 (60-121 cm), Spawls et al. 2023 (70-120 cm, a 24 mm juvenile had an umbilical scar)
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
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 300–600m
- Range size
- 6,241,197km²
mostly frogs, also mammals and snakes (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), amphibians (Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 202)
(Wilkey and Terrell 2017) see also Pietersen et al. 2021
Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Trape 2023, Spawls et al. 202
"surficial (terrestrial, non-scansorial)" (Gearty et al. 2021), largely aquatic (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), terrestrial but hunts in the water (Malonza and Bwong 2023), semi aquatic (Trape 2023), terrestrial, swims (Spawls et al. 2023)
300-600 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 18
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 6–30eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
midpoint of the reported range — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
10-30 (Marais 2005), 6-9 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 202)
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
- South Sudan
Keeping one
11 ft 7 in × 11 ft 7 in × 7 ft 3 in(352 × 352 × 220 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
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 2 ft 11 in (880 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Gray 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.
23kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 218 g, the heaviest recorded for Gray 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
- — 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
- — 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
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 lineatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-lineatus
@misc{psammophis_lineatus_2026,
title = {Psammophis lineatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophis-lineatus}
}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.