What Australian snakes might eat insects?

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HoodieBeast

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I'm interested in any species of Australian snake that may feed on invertebrates, it is for a small art project! :D
Preferably if it is fairly common within that species... but species that may do so on occasion are fine!
Thanks in advance!
 
There are snakes in the Genus Anilios and Indotyphlops that predominantly eats ants and their larva. White bellied Mangrove Snakes Fordinia leucobalia eat crabs.
 
Scott, you might be able to confirm - I saw somewhere, some years ago, a reference to a baby GTP eating a moth at Iron Range if I recall?

Jamie
 
There was a record of a copperhead eating a grasshopper (i think) from herpetofauna. Late 90s i think it was.
 
I saw somewhere, some years ago, a reference to a baby GTP eating a moth at Iron Range if I recall?


Jamie, it was actually an adult (or semi-adult) that snatched a moth in flight and ate it. The footage was taken on IR camera by Dave Wilson during his studies at Iron Range.
Although interesting event, it should not be interpreted as that moths are part of GTP's diet.

cheers
Michael
 
I remember hearing that little whip snakes may eat insects.
 
I'm pretty sure that there is also an article in one of the old 1990's Herpetofaunas where someone observed a Yellow Faced Whip Snake chasing and eating grasshoppers.

Cheers,

George.
 
I would imagine if you don't have access to these snakes a legless lizard might help :lol:

But I have heard of some young elapids eating insects however I'm not sure if they are a major part of their diet
 
We all "have heard" but where is the evidence? Surely witnessing something like that would be worth writing it up if a camera is not handy.
Over the years, lot of museum specimens were examined for stomach contents but no reports of insects being found. Many species react to movement and may well snatch an insect but eating it is another thing. JMO
 
We all "have heard" but where is the evidence? Surely witnessing something like that would be worth writing it up if a camera is not handy.
Over the years, lot of museum specimens were examined for stomach contents but no reports of insects being found. Many species react to movement and may well snatch an insect but eating it is another thing. JMO

That was what I was trying to allude to Waterrat, that just because something "eats" something doesn't mean that is part of their diet.
 
I agree Michael, a few of the books I had as a kid suggested that insects were part of the diet of small snakes. One of them was Glauert's "Snakes of Western Australia" (I think that's what it was called...). This small handbook suggested that many smaller species included insects in their diet, it was obviously assumption rather than observation that led to these statements. I remember catching & keeping "Little Whip Snakes" and Western Crowned Snakes, then known as Denisonia gouldii and Denisonia coronata respectively, and being very frustrated that they wouldn't eat juicy grasshoppers & crickets! Western Crowned Snakes (now Elapognathus coronata) remain, along with Bardicks (Echiopsis curta) remain among my favourite small elapids.

Jamie
 
Hi Michael,

I agree with what you say regarding snakes eating the odd insect.

I remember reading literature regarding the examination of stomach contents of museum specimens and if I recall correctly only a minimum number revealed what was considered to be naturally selected food items. If I also recall correctly quite a large number of the stomachs of those examined were either empty or the contents were identified as common rodents which lead the author to believe that a large majority of those examined came from private collections.

I did a scat analysis on some of the large and small elapids while I was doing Advanced Herpetology with Harry Ehmann at the University of Technology, Sydney in the early 90's (eg; Tigers, Copperheads, Blacks, Small Eyes, Swamp Snakes) and amongst other things like pebbles and pieces of plastic, discovered insect parts in quite a number of each individual scat. At the time I was also able to identify species of rodents (claws and teeth) and lizards (head and feet scales) and because the insects were not whole animals (as I would expect in the case with a snake consuming them) I hypothesised that the parts were secondary food items ingested by the prey items prior to it being eaten by the snake(s).

George.
 
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Interesting George, thanks for sharing.

question: have you found any remains of frogs in scats? I had many discussions with friends who studied GTPs (done scat analysis) and they don't believe that yellow juveniles consume small frogs. Yet, many of my CB hatchlings that were reluctant to take pinkies, went for frogs or frog scented pinkies with gusto. I can't imagine they evolved the taste for frogs in captivity LOL. My take is - small frogs would come out the other end in form of sludge, impossible to identify.
Your thoughts?

cheers
Michael
 
Great conversation! I didn't think I'd start something so interesting haha,
Thanks for the info I just need to draw a lil snake eating a bug and want to make sure there is a tiny scratch of truth to it even if it's fairly unlikely.
 
Interesting George, thanks for sharing.

question: have you found any remains of frogs in scats? I had many discussions with friends who studied GTPs (done scat analysis) and they don't believe that yellow juveniles consume small frogs. Yet, many of my CB hatchlings that were reluctant to take pinkies, went for frogs or frog scented pinkies with gusto. I can't imagine they evolved the taste for frogs in captivity LOL. My take is - small frogs would come out the other end in form of sludge, impossible to identify.
Your thoughts?QUOTE]

No Michael. I still have a habit of checking out wild snake scats I've never found evidence of frogs and suspect that it's because the digestive juices would dissolve them rather quickly. I've dissected a few road killed juvenile pythons (not GTP's) and other species over the years and discovered the remains of recently eaten frogs so I'm convinced that where available frogs would contribute significantly to the diet of most of if not all juvenile Australian pythons (including GTP's), colubrids and large and small elapids. I've also used them very successfully in the past to scent rodent pinkies and weaners.

Cheers mate.
 
Just an aside George & Michael (isn't there a singer with a similar name :)?) - what species of frog would be safe to use as a scenting aid, given that some species have toxic skin exudates? I'm guessing Green Tree Frogs are OK since Common Tree Snakes can eat them with impunity.

Jamie
 
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Jamie, I use road kills, usually L. gracilenta, they get squashed on our road on wet nights. You only need one (in freezer) for scenting. The species that GTPs feed on at IR is Papurana daemeli (formally Rana), they are their in their millions in the wet season when skinks are harder to get. The metamorphs are just the right size for yellow GTPs.
 
Hi Jamie,

I've used Limnodynastes peroni, L. tasmaniensis & Litoria dentata. Only because I used them as food in the old days and found them to be safe back then.
 
Thanks guys, so there's quite a choice. Never tried scenting with frogs, and never had much success with chick or quail down, which is also damned fiddly!

J
 
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