strange-scaled snake

[Lrptls]

in my Snakes of the World book, theres a tiny section about the "strange-scaled snake" Xenodermus javanicus. its in the colubridae family-xenoderminae-sybinofinae.
this book has often mistakes, this is an obvious one about the "strange-scaled snake's" behavior..."it is an amphibian, its diet consisting mainly of frogs.
it lives in Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Kalimatan.

has any one ever heard of this snake before, seen it, know any thing about it?
heres a pic i took of the page in my book, its the only picture of the snake

[WingedWolf]

That's not a mistake.
Being amphibious means that you live both in water and on land.
They meant it literally. They did not mean that it was part of CLASS Amphibia, they meant that it was an amphibian because it spent time both on land and in the water.

[Lrptls]

ok, i figured that was one of there other mistakes. i thought if they meant amphibious they would have put amphibious but whatever. still looking for more info on them, any body?

[reptile boi]

maybe theyre an extinct species?
just a guess.




Thanks,
Ben

[Cruciform]

If you're referring to the book by Manuel Areste and Rafael Cebrian, there are definitely a lot of mistakes. They seem mostly translation issues, since the original was in either Spanish or Portuguese.

As said above the info is probably accurate but the translator should have used amphibious instead of amphibian.

Some of the temperature info in the bok is not only wrong, but dangerous if you were looking for husdandry info.

It would seem that the temperatures were originally calculated in Celsius. Then when it was translated for the US audience the temperatures were converted directly to Fahrenheit, but not in context.

So since 0 or 0.5 celcius would convert to 32 Fahrenheit on a thermometer they get some wacky results.

When talking about how sensitive a snake is to changes in heat, the original text would appear to have meant that the snake can detect changes less than 1 degree celsius. When converted to Fahrenheit, the text says the snake can detect temp changes as small as 32 degrees. Big oops.

[urd]

yeah, i reasearched this snake about a year ago, you would not believe how hard it is to find information about it.

it belongs to the odd-scaled snakes group Xenoderminae. little is known about their biology or natural history. It is suggested they require humid, tropical conditions in the terrarium.

They grow to around 26'' and feed largly on frogs and other amphibians. Four genera occur in southeast Asia and two more in tropical Central and South America.

I have a portrait picture somewhere but i cant find it. when i do i will post it for you.

[fateamber]

It says... "xenoderminae contains the odd- scaled snakes. this subfamily is named after the Oriental xenodermus, in which the various sized dorsal scales are rather uniquely arranged in patterns. Four furthergenera occur in Southeast Asia and two more in tropical Central and South America. Little is known about the biology of these snakes at the present time, and they rarely turn up in the hobby. It has been suggested that they require humid, tropical conditions in the Terrarium. Xenodermus is a faily plain brown snake with a lighter underside. It grows to about 26 in/ 65 cm in total length and feeds largely on frogs." In SNAKES keeping and breeding them in captivity by John Coborn :) There is also a pic of Xenodermus javanicus and it looks kind of grey.

[urd]

i got that exact same book in front of me now, but when i researched them thats still all i could find out about them.

also, the pic in that book shows it as having a really strange nose.

[fateamber]

lol yeah, and creepy eyes :eek:

[Lrptls]

can you try to take a picture of the book,scan it or something so i can see it too?

[Cruciform]

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/4112strangescaled.jpg

No pic of the snake though.

[Lrptls]

thats the same book i have, no picture of the snake though, which is what i'm really after

my favorite mistake is on page 155, the eastern ribbon snake has a rattle and heat pits.

[fateamber]

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1925DSCN1067.JPG

There is a pic of the snake from the book, it isn't the best pic I know, but it turned out better than I htought it would of.

:)

[Lrptls]

wow! its awesome, i want one =D

thanks fateamber

[WingedWolf]

Yes, it's rather amazing such an unusual snake hasn't become popular in the hobby....it'd be interesting to see if an importer can get them hands on some of them. At the time that was written, frog eating snakes ate frogs...now we are about experts on switching them all over to rodents, lol....