What u think?I.D? [L. rufulus]

[Rishaad]

Ok, maybe I am full of BS or maybe even SS or maybe I just need to have my eyes checked cos the belly does look too orangeish/pinkish to be a fuscus. @westley - Remember Im fairly new to this man and I was just relaying what I could see in the pics from the book and if you look at this pic carefully there is a striking resemblance.



From A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa, Second Edition, by Johan Marais, Struik publishers, 2004. ( Don't forget proper referencing when posting articles such as this one!) -BushSnake

[Westley Price]

Hi Rishaad. No worries man, it's a common mistake. Young L. rufulus do resemble L. fuscus quite closely, but the snake in question is definitely L. rufulus.

Unless I've been catching 10's of misidentified fuscus, haha. Wouldn't that be a joke.

A scale count would sort this out easily, but I'm sticking with Brown Water Snake.

[Wolverine]

Hi guys

This is a L. rufulus. Out of interest, molecular work has shown that the genera Lamprophis and Lycodonomorphus are not distinct from one another and they will be merged - all falling under Lamprophis. This actually makes some intuitive sense when you look at similar snakes like fuscus and rufulus.

[BOOGY]

Well please do post some pics to help show the obious pointers to qickly I.D these two species correctly apart from scale counting.If it is posible.
I have never caught either of the two species before, but have not seen the pinkish belly on rufulus pics.