Reptilia · Squamata
Psammophylax variabilisGünther, 1893
Grey-bellied Grass Snake
Photograph by Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 140 cm nose to tail.
Also called Grey-bellied skaapstekker.
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
30 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 835mm2 ft 9 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1400mm4 ft 7 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 153mm6 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 190.5g6.7 oz
1400 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), mean 562, max 900, neonates 154 (total length; Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max svl 835 mm in males, 620 mm in females, neonates 151-155 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults average 40-60 cm, max just over 1 m, hatchlings 15-15.5 cm), Trape 2023 (50-100 cm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 2600m
- Range size
- 1,102,715km²
small mammals, fledgling birds, lizards, frogs and fish (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), rodents ocasionally lizards and amphibians (Trape 2023)
Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022, Trape 2023
"surficial (terrestrial, non-scansorial)" (Gearty et al. 2021), terrestrial (Marais 2022, Trape 2023)
Wilkey and Terrell 2017
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 14.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–8eggs
viviparous (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), ovoviparous (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), oviparous (Marais 2022: says it lays eggs but "hatchlings have been found with females, resulting in reports of live birth, but it could have been that the females were protecting their eggs prior to hatching")
4 (Marais 2005, Wilkey and Terrell 2017, n = 1), up to 4 (Pietersen et al. 2021), usually up to 4, but 8 eggs removed from a disected specimen (Marais 2022) so I write 2-8
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Psammophylax variabilis variabilis GÜNTHER 1893 Psammophylax variabilis vanoyei LAURENT 1956: 240
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1893
- Type locality
- Malawi
Keeping one
10 ft 11 in × 10 ft 11 in × 6 ft 10 in(334 × 334 × 209 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 9 in (835 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 Grey-bellied 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.
21kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 190 g, the heaviest recorded for Grey-bellied 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 it hunts
- — 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
- — Population trend
- — 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). Psammophylax variabilis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophylax-variabilis
@misc{psammophylax_variabilis_2026,
title = {Psammophylax variabilis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammophylax-variabilis}
}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.