Namib Corals doing the dirty, finally!!

[Pythonodipsas]

For about 3 weeks now I have been trying to get my A.l.cowlesi to do the dirty.

I guess they werent ready then cause I tried this afternoon (15h45) and introduced my only male with my 'light phase' female and there was instant love.

Courtship was for about 15 mins with the male doing much nudging and lifting the females scales against the grain with his rostral (Interesting behaviour I have also seen in shield nose snake courtship). Then they were locked up for the 3 hours that I was in and out the room. They still could be at it. Woohoo!!!





I know this is technically an exotic species but I posted in this forum cause they are indigenous to Southern Africa. Mods please move the post if you feel it should be moved.

[Mongoose]

Wow they are nice, lemme know how it goes..

[Jantus]

Congrats!!!

Let's just hope for the best...

Have you ever bred them before?

[Pythonodipsas]

Will do mongoose.

Jantus - I have never bred these before, only Aspidelaps I bred were shield nose snakes.

[Bushviper]

That is great. I cannot tell the difference between cowlesi and infuscatus. Can you help me out here, cause the male looks like what I would have called infuscatus.

A buddy of mine triple clutches his A.l. infuscatus every year so keep the weight up on the female and see if you can double clutch her at least.

Nice one.

[Mongoose]

Bv, i asked him the exact same question! This is the reply i got: According to a recent paper by Baldwin and Broadley, infuscatus have been dropped and are no longer. A.l.cowlesi is now found throughout namibia.

The paper was published in 2006. So I guess not many have seen it.


Mongoose

[Bushviper]

Thanks Mongoose. I like the name cowlesi because I can imagine someone wearing a hood over their heads.

[Rob]

Very exciting stuff Pythonadipsas. The babies are gonna be awesome.

Who else is breeding SA stuff? Common or not, who is breeding what this season?

Regards

[Hellemar]

Hi...


pythonodipsas: Nice ! I love those pornpics...

Bushviper: I have had 2 clutches already on my pair of infuscatus and it looks like the third is on it´s way any day now...

Mongoose: Does that means that there aren´t no infuscatus at all now ? Do you have the actuall papers or do you have a link or something ?
If so - what are my former "infuscatus" called now ? Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi ???

Bushviper: You said something about a hood over their heads... Is that what cowlesi means ? In what language ? I´m very interested in such things...



Henke

[Mongoose]

Henke, rather ask pythonodipsas about the changing, your snakes are now Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi.

[Pythonodipsas]

Hey BV, You are correct in your observations, that male is true 'infuscatus' and the female true 'cowlesi' but...

...to clear up things for everybody…

...taxonomically things have changed drastically, as the Aspidelaps genus was turned upside down, shaken and fully revised recently by Donald Broadley and Andrew Baldwin*. They took the original A.l.infuscatus and A.l.cowlesi and united them together into one far ranging variable subspecies (A.l.cowlesi). The only other subspecies in the Genus is A.l.lubricus. Subsequently there is no more A.l.infuscatus!!! You can now find A.l.cowlesi in Keetmanshoop, southern Namibia!!

They even suggested new english names!! Now the accepted english name for the 2 spp are Coral Shield Cobra and Namibian Shield Cobra. The distinction is what they call 'light phase' and 'dark phase'. All previous A.l.infuscatus from most of Namibia is now called 'dark phase' A.l.cowlesi. The specimens with the orange or light heads from far northern Namibia are now called 'Light phase' A.l.cowlesi. Originally the main difference between cowlesi and infuscatus besides colour and distribution was based on the temporal formula on the side of the head. This often turned out to be unreliable.

Anyway I myself prefer to call them 'infuscatus' phase and 'cowlesi' phase respectively

The female being mated in the in the pictures above is from the Brandburg Mountains, Namibia and was technically a true 'cowlesi' or 'light' phase A.l.cowlesi according to her locality but the temporal formula on her head is that of a 'infuscatus'???

Here is a picture of a huge animal that I considered true 'cowlesi' based on the fact that it was found at Ruacana on the Namibia/Angolan border.





Personally, I find 'cowlesi' animals to have a broader/thicker, more cobra like head.... whereas 'infuscatus' always have a narrower, more bullet shaped head. Based on this alone I would have left the subspecies separated and valid. But what do I know.

* Broadley, D.G. and A.S. Baldwin, 2006. Taxonomy, Natural History, and Zoogeography of the Southern African Shield Cobras, Genus Aspidelaps
(Serpentes, Elapidae). Herpetological Natural History, 9 (2): 163 –176.

.

[Hellemar]

Hi...


This was really cool to know... So my former "infuscatus" are Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi, 'dark phased' Namibian Shield Cobra, nowadays... Do you know what - that means that I can earn a lot of money selling my offspring as Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi, because that subspieces where as common as wild Elephants here in Sweden...

I´m still interested of knowing more about the word cowlesi - what language does it has it´s origin and what does it mean ?



Henke

[Bushviper]

Hellemar dont get caught selling elephants in sweden either.

A cowl is the hood that a monk wears that makes them look like Darth vader or whoever that guy is from Star Wars. It covers the head and neck in black so is very appropriate.

The common name (and the new description for that matter) is just a suggestion and is not enforceable. To call it a Shield cobra just sounds wrong. I would stick with Namibian Coral snake.

[Mongoose]

Craig that one in the last picture is huge!!!