Reptilia · Squamata
Xenocalamus bicolorGünther, 1868
Slender Quill-snouted Snake
Photograph by Nick Schaller, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 720 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Atractaspididae › Xenocalamus
- Grows to
- 720mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
Longer than 65% of all species in Atractaspididae 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 200 to 1,280 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the front of the mouth
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 674mm2 ft 3 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 720mm2 ft 4 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 200mm7.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 100.6g3.5 oz
720 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max 530 mm SVL in males, 674 mm in females; hatchlings 200 mm TL), Marais 2022 (adults average 35-50 cm, max 72 cm, hatchlings 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
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Fossorial, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Savanna
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 200–1400m
- Range size
- 2,933,791km²
amphisbaenians (Pietersen et al. 2021), reptiles (van Huyssteen 2023), burrowing skinks and amphisbaenians (Marais 2022)
Active (Murphy et al. 2003, van Huyssteen 2023)
sometimes active on the surface at night (Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), nocturnal (van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022)
Fossorial (Bates et al. 2014, Marais 2022), fossorial, sometimes active on the surface at night (Pietersen et al. 2021), fossorial and terrestrial (van Huyssteen 2023)
1000-1400 (Bates et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–4eggs
Chippaux and Jackson 2019, Branch 1998
2-4 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), 3-4 (Marais 2005), 3-4 (Branch 1998, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022), max=4 (Murphy et al. 2003)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Xenocalamus bicolor australis FITZSIMONS 1946 Xenocalamus bicolor bicolor GÜNTHER 1868 Xenocalamus bicolor lineatus ROUX 1907 Xenocalamus bicolor machadoi LAURENT 1954
- Described by
- Günther
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1868
- Type locality
- Namibia
Keeping one
8 ft 10 in × 8 ft 10 in × 5 ft 6 in(270 × 270 × 169 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better. Substrate at least 13.5 in (34 cm) deep.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Burrows, so substrate deep enough to dig in matters as much as floor area.
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 (674 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 Slender Quill-snouted 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.
12kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 101 g, the heaviest recorded for Slender Quill-snouted 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
Others in Atractaspididae
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). Xenocalamus bicolor. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xenocalamus-bicolor
@misc{xenocalamus_bicolor_2026,
title = {Xenocalamus bicolor},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xenocalamus-bicolor}
}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.