''Lycodonomorphus inornatus'', commonly known as the olive house snake, the black house snake, and the olive ground snake, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of nonvenomous snake in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Lamprophiidae The Lamprophiidae are a family of snakes found throughout much of Africa, including the Seychelles. There are 89 species as of July 2022. Biology Lamprophiids are a very diverse group of snakes. Many are terrestrial but some are fossorial (e.g. ...

. The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It is a nocturnal snake with terrestrial habits.

Description

''L. inornatus'' commonly reaches a total length (including tail) of , with a recorded maximum of . Individuals may be dark olive to black, or uniformly light brown to olive grey-green, with a uniform or slightly lighter belly, especially the chin, throat and neck.

Distribution and habitat

The olive house snake occurs in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and Eswatini, where it is found along the eastern coastal belt from the southwestern Cape through East London to the Transkei, and extending through low-veld regions of the KwaZulu-Natal, the Mpumalanga escarpment and the Limpopo Province. It inhabits coastal

bushveld The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...

, fynbos and grassveld where sufficient moisture is present, and may occur close to human habitations. Reports of occurrence from

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

remain unconfirmed.

Ecology

''L. inornatus'' is nocturnal and generally terrestrial, hunting on the ground. It is generally slow moving and docile but may bite when molested. Females lay 5–15 eggs. The olive house snake feeds on lizards, small rodents and other snakes. It is preyed on by various types of raptors, including the

snake eagle ''Circaetus'', the snake eagles, is a genus of medium-sized eagles in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. They are mainly resident African species, but the migratory short-toed snake eagle breeds from the Mediterranean basin into Russia, the ...

and the

secretary bird The secretarybird or secretary bird (''Sagittarius serpentarius'') is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region. John Frederick Miller describe ...

, as well as by other snakes.

References

* Boulenger GA (1893). ''Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families ... Colubridæ Aglyphæ, part''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (''Lamprophis inornatus'', pp. 321–322). * Branch, Bill (2004). ''Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (''Lamprophis inornatus'', p. 74 + Plate 32). * Duméril A-M-C, Bibron G, Duméril A H-A(1854). ''Erpétologie générale ou histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. Tome septième. Première partie. Comprenant l'histoire des serpents non venimeux'' General Herpetology or Complete Natural History of the Reptiles. Volume 7. First Part. Containing the Natural History of Nonvenomous Snakes Paris: Roret. xvi + 780 pp. (''Lamprophis inornatus'', new species, pp. 434–435). (in French). * Kelly CMR, Branch WR, Broadley DG, Barker NP, Villet MH (2011). "Molecular systematics of the African snake family Lamprophiidae Fitzinger, 1843 (Serpentes: Elapoidea), with particular focus on the genera ''Lamprophis'' Fitzinger 1843 and ''Mehelya'' Csiki 1903". ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 58 (3): 415-426. (''Lycodonomorphus inornatus'', new combination). {{Taxonbar, from=Q3268456 Colubrids Reptiles described in 1854 Taxa named by André Marie Constant Duméril Taxa named by Gabriel Bibron Taxa named by Auguste Duméril

Description

Distribution and habitat

Ecology

References

Further reading