Reptilia · Squamata
Suta flagellumMccoy, 1878
Little Whip Snake
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 540 mm nose to tail.
Also called Whip Hooded Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Elapidae › Suta
- Grows to
- 540mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 12years
Longer than only 13% of all elapid snakes 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 219 to 5,710 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
37 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
- 2017
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 12years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 24°C75 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 16.68–36.2°C62–97 °F
Eipper and Eipper 2022
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 366mm14.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 272mm10.5 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 540mm21.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 264.5mm10.5 in
- Largest male · snout to vent
- 265mm10.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 140mm5.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 11.5mm0.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 24.9g0.88 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.32g0.05 oz
450 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Eipper and Eipper 2022 (mean 400 mm, 55 g, max 540 mm, 80 g; neonates 140 mm, 1.8 g), Shine 1994 (82 males 18.9-34.7, mean 27.2 cm SVL; 72 females 21.5-36.6, mean 27.2 cm SVL)
snakes only in this source
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Biome
- Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Range size
- 144,341km²
skinks and lizards (Eipper and Eipper 2022)
(Cogger 2018, Maryan et al. 2020), nocturnal but basks (Eipper and Eipper 2022)
Feldman 2015
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 3.75eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–7eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.55eggs
Feldman et al. 2015, Meiri et al. 2019
1-7 mean=3.55 s.d.=0.2 n=43 (Shine 1988), 1-7 average 4 (Eipper and Eipper 2022), Shine 1994 (1-7, mean 3.6, n = 42 clutches)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Mccoy
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1878
- Type locality
- Australia
Keeping one
21.5 in × 10.5 in × 16 in(54 × 27 × 41 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
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 total length of 21.5 in (540 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 75 °F (24 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 25 g, the heaviest recorded for Little Whip 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 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 · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
- — Highest it lives · above sea level
Others in Elapidae
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). Suta flagellum. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/suta-flagellum
@misc{suta_flagellum_2026,
title = {Suta flagellum},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/suta-flagellum}
}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.