Aspidalaps lubricus

South African snakes with venoms that are considered to be medically important.

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Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:44 pm

Not sure about this guy, I think he is a cross between lubricus and cowlesi.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby Bushviper » Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:42 pm

Yeah I would also say possibly not pure lubricus or cowlesi from the few shots you posted.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:47 pm

Ja I am a bit disappointed because I wanted to breed with him, but he makes up for it with his attitude.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby Bushviper » Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:34 pm

Its a natural intergrade. Just take a Cowlesi that is very dark and offer her to him.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Sun Mar 12, 2017 11:27 am

Just going to carry on from this post as it seems to make sense. The above male which most people including myself decided was an inter-grade between lubricus and cowlesi (which happens naturally) I eventually decided to pair him up with a cowlesi female. I held back all the offspring which are now in their third year. Here are a few pictures of four of them, there were eight in total.

Offspring 1
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Offspring 2
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Offspring 3
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Offspring 4 (in the blue)
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Sun Mar 12, 2017 11:28 am

Sorry I mixed the last two up, obviously the second to last one is in the blue.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby Westley Price » Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:30 am

Excellent results GCol.

I am going to play devil's advocate and suggest your male was a true lubricus. :smt077

The reason I say that is the some of the resulting babies seem resemble lubricus quite strongly.

I suspect if the male was an intergrade, the babies wold lean a lot more towards cowlesi seeing as they would only be 25% lubricus, whereas now I would say they resemble 50% lubricus.

But nevertheless, great results and some stunning babies there. Very pretty, especially Offspring 1.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:37 am

Haha! Thanks Westley. I will try and find some photos of them as hatchlings as they were all identical and all looked like cowlesi. Some have colored up unbelievably over the last year. The male is actually quite dull compared t o most of his offspring but I still have four more young ones to take snaps of and post, I will try that tonight.

Thanks again for the compliment.
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby Westley Price » Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:05 pm

Extract from TAXONOMY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICANbSHIELD COBRAS, GENUS ASPIDELAPS (SERPENTES: ELAPIDAE) by Broadley and Baldwin, 2006

To be honest, not very much in it distinguishing between cowlesi and lubricus except for colour/pattern, so having an intergrade would be tricky to determine.

Key to the Species and Subspecies of Aspidelaps

1a Internasals completely separated by the very large
rostral; usually only fourth upper labial entering the
orbit (sometimes excluded by a subocular); dorsal
scales on posterior half of body and tail keeled ....2

1b Internasals in contact behind the rostral; third and
fourth upper labials entering the orbit; dorsal scales
smooth throughout ..................................................4

2a Subcaudals 25–31 in males, 19–24 in females ........
..............................................................A. s. scutatus

2b Subcaudals 32–39 in males, 27–33 in females ......3

3a Dark markings usually poorly defined; snout-vent
length rarely exceeds 500 mm, ventrals 108–113 in
males, 117–121 in females; subcaudals 32–35 in
males, 27–31 in females ................A. s. intermedius

3b Dark markings clear and extensive; snout-vent
length often exceeds 500 mm; ventrals 111–123 in
males, 117–125 in females; subcaudals 33–39 in
males, 30–33 in females ......................A. s. fulafula

4a Conspicuously banded in red and black ..................
..............................................................A. l. lubricus

4b Pale gray to dark brown with or without black crossbands......................................................A.
l. cowlesi
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Re: Aspidalaps lubricus

Postby GCol » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:04 pm

Here is the rest of them, I see what you mean with regards to the differences between the two subspecies. It has been very interesting seeing how the markings and colour has developed as they have grown though. My photography is so sketchy lol. They look very different in the photos.
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It was also very interesting with feeding, the more colourful lubricus looking ones took much longer to get onto mice than the others and the size difference whether because of that or something else is quite remarkable.
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