Philothamnus hoplogaster

[Mehelya]

Well, on the same day as the Night Adder call out, I had to go and catch this one.

No keeled scales, anywhere, paired sub-caudals (not keeled), anal shield is divided, and is very aggressive... about 50cm long and relatively thick for a Philothamnus...

Here are the pics...

Top-Down View


Head Top Down


Side View

[Chameleon Company]

Nice! Beautiful species.

Philothamnus is a genus I would love to keep in my collection but captive species are literally non existent.

[Mehelya]

Chameleon Company, I threw in a pink, and we'll see if it eats it...

[Kennyakagera]

Hey Meleya,
Nice hoplogaster ! It actually look very similar to the P.angolensis that we get commonly back home but the 2 supralabial entering the eyes means that it can't be as angolensis has 3 supralabial entering the eye. And I suppose the distribution wouldn't match.
But I tought that P.hoplogater had distinct blue flanks ?

Nice snake anyway
Kenny.

[rolandslf]

Nice Green Water Snake Rian
In my experience, these are not normally aggressive.
Will be interesting to see if it takes the pink.

[Jamster]

Looool, saw the top picture a day or 2 ago on a whatsapp group, with the guys saying "wow, cool natal green that guy caught hey". I was like "people that is hoplagaster". They took little notice of my comment. This confirms it I have had four of these little guys from a development site. They take frogs very quickly, but pinks freak them out hahaha, Relocated them a few days later.

[Mehelya]

Kenny, these guys do have blue skin, in-between the scales, but not pronounced, in the ones that I've seen. P. hoplogaster and P. natalensis distributions do overlap slightly, if I remember correctly.

Thanks Roland, yeah, this one is different. Wants to kill me...

Jamster, I did originally ID it as a Natal green, but something wasn't right... (Not inflating neck, thickness of body, etc), and the sub-caudals are paired, and smooth, not keeled. So after a discussion with Rolandslf, and Fooble, they put me onto the correct ID.

[rolandslf]

Thanks for the credit Rian, I have to admit that the first 3 or 4 of this species I caught, were also ID'd by me as Natal Green.
But once you have caught 10 or so, you ID them pretty quickly.
By the way, Fooble also set me on the right pathe to ID this species correctly.

[Mehelya]

Roland, I always treat Philothamnus with care, even though I know they are harmless... Just something about that "evil eye" that gives me the heebies now and then. I have to admit, they do look pissed off all the time... Plus, I'm no big fan of repeatedly being bitten...

[Jamster]

Ive also noticed that natal greens have a silvery green or turquoise belly while green waters have a pearly white belly. Just an observation

[rolandslf]

Eish Rian, talk about being repeatedly bitten. Spotted Bush can bite repeatedly and so fast.

[Chameleon Company]

@ Mehelya.

Please post these series of pics on ADU (ReptileMAP), most Philothamnus records are unidentifiable.

[Mehelya]

Chameleon Company, I will do so with absolute pleasure. I can also add Philothamnus natalensis occidentalis, and Philothamnus semivariegatus data. Could you send me a link to where and how?

[Chameleon Company]

http://sarca.adu.org.za/

that's ReptileMAP, you will need to register and the uploading process is very easy and is explained on the site. The series of photos you have in this post are very good for identification purposes as most of the Philothamnus records we battle with.

[Jamster]

Hope you don't mind Rian

Here are a couple pics of a Natal green...

IMG_201309025466.jpg

IMG_2013090211288.jpg