Reptilia · Squamata
Psammophylax rhombeatusLinnaeus, 1758
Rhombic Skaapsteker
No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 140 cm nose to tail.
Also called Spotted Grass Snake, Spotted Skaapsteker.
Reptilia › Squamata › Psammophiidae › Psammophylax
- Grows to
- 1400mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
Longer than 60% 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
33 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
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 685mm2 ft 3 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1400mm4 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 197mm7.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 114.8g4 oz
1400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 356-685, mean 453.5 ± 88.63, n = 10; female SVL: mean 437.6 ± 30.79, range 410-478, n = 5), Marais 2022 (adults average 40-70 cm, max 1.4 m, hatchlings 15.5-24 cm), Jordaan et al. 2023 (SVL 161-556, n = 5)
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
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Montane Grasslands & Savannas
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2300m
- Range size
- 763,100km²
predominantly "small vertebrates inclusive of frogs, lizards, small mammals, and even other snakes", but 57% mammals in his data (Tokota 2020), rodents, lizards, birds forgs and snakes (Marais 2022)
Active (Glaudas et al. 2019, Marais 2022)
(Marais 2004; recorded by Anuj Shinde), Diurnal (Marais 2022)
"surficial (terrestrial, non-scansorial)" (Gearty et al. 2021), terrestrial (Marais 2022)
from the coast to about 2300 (Bates et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 26eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 8–30eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
Feldman et al. 2015
8-30 (Marais 2005, Marais 2022), max 30 (Tokota 2020)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
9 ft × 9 ft × 5 ft 7 in(274 × 274 × 171 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 3 in (685 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 Rhombic Skaapsteker. 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.
13kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 115 g, the heaviest recorded for Rhombic Skaapsteker — 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
- — 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). Psammophylax rhombeatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophylax-rhombeatus
@misc{psammophylax_rhombeatus_2026,
title = {Psammophylax rhombeatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophylax-rhombeatus}
}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.