Elaphe hodgsoni

Elaphe hodgsoni, also known commonly as Hodgson's rat snake and the Himalayan trinket snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to parts of Asia around the Himalayas.

Elaphe hodgsoni
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Elaphe
Species:	E. hodgsoni
Binomial name
Elaphe hodgsoni (Günther, 1860)
Synonyms
Spilotes hodgsonii Günther, 1860 Compsosoma hodgsonii — Günther, 1864 Coluber hodgsoni — Boulenger, 1890 Elaphe hodgsoni — Smith M.A., 1943 Gonyosoma hodgsoni — Wallach, 1997 Orthriophis hodgsoni — Utiger et al., 2002 Elaphe hodgsoni — Chen et al., 2017

Etymology

The specific name, hodgsoni, is in honor of British naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson.

Description

E. hodgsoni grows to 4 feet (1.2 m) in total length, including a tail 9 inches (23 cm) long. It is brownish-olive above, with most of the scales black-edged. The young have blackish cross bands. Its lower parts are yellowish, with the outer part of the margin of each ventral shield blackish.

Its rostral is as deep as it is broad, and visible from above. The suture between the internasals is much shorter than that between the prefrontals. Its frontal is as long as its distance from the end of the snout or a little shorter, and shorter than the parietals. The loreal is longer than deep, and often united with the prefrontal. It has one large preocular (a small subocular below the preocular is rarely present) and two postoculars. Temporals are 2+2 or 2+3. Normally there are 8 upper labials, the fourth and fifth entering the eye, and 5 lower labials in contact with the anterior chin shields. The anterior chin shields are as long as the posterior chin shields or a little longer. The dorsal scales are in 23 rows, feebly keeled on the posterior part of the body. Ventrals 233–246; anal divided; subcaudals 79–90.

Geographic range

E. hodgsoni is found in China (Tibet), India (Sikkim, Assam, Kashmir), and Nepal.

Type locality: "China: Ladakh" (Günther 1860) = "Tibet: Ladakh, Tsomoriri" (Boulenger 1894).

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of E. hodgsoni is forest, at altitudes of 1,500–5,000 m (4,900–16,400 ft), but it is also found in agricultural areas and urban areas.

Behavior

E. hodgsoni is terrestrial and diurnal.

Diet

E. hodgsoni preys upon toads, skinks, and rodents.

Reproduction

E. hodgsoni is oviparous. The female lays a clutch of about six eggs, which she guards. The eggs hatch in about 130 days.

Gallery

• 
  Himalayan Trinket

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1894). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 382 pp. + Plates I–XX. (Coluber hodgsonii, pp. 35–36).
• Das I (2002). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of India. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 144 pp. ISBN 0-88359-056-5. (Elaphe hodgsoni, p. 33).
• Günther A (1860). "Contributions to a Knowledge of the Reptiles of the Himalaya Mountains. I. Descriptions of the New Species. II. List of Himalayan Reptiles, with Remarks on their Horizontal Distribution". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1860: 148–175 + Plates XXV–XXVIII. (Spilotes hodgsonii, new species, p. 156 + Plate XXVII).
• Günther A (1864). The Reptiles of British India. London: The Ray Society. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xxvii + 252 pp. + Plates I–XXVI. (Compsosoma hodgsonii, p. 246).
• Smith MA (1943). The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-region. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. III.—Serpentes. London: Secretary of State for India. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 583 pp. (Elaphe hodgsoni, p. 152).
• Wallach V (1997). "A monograph of the colubrid snakes of the genus Elaphe Fitzinger (book review)". Herpetological Review 28 (2): 110. (Gonyosoma hodgsoni).