Black striped snake

[michaelh]

Does anybody know much about this snake.

I am in Far North Queensland and to cut a long story short a mate of mine has had a few snakes on his property that he had never seen before. When I checked my very basic local animal guide he swore it was what the author called the Black Striped Snake. However the description stated the snake grows to 40cm whereas the animals he encountered were at least 5 ft.

Even assuming that he over estimated the length it must have been substantially longer than 40cm. Anybody have any thoughts.

Also I would like to purchase a much better guide/identification book, any suggestions would be very helpful.

Thanks everybody

Michael

Sorry he didn't get any pictures but promised to next time.

 

[craig23]

Hi, assuming your talking about the Blacked Striped Snake Neelaps calonotus (which is found in coastal western australia) the only possible thing I would think of that might resemble this but at the same time be 5ft long, is a nicely coloured Western Brown Snake or Gwardar. Can you elaborate a bit, What Colours was the snake? where did he see it, in a tree? on the ground? in the rainforest, or in open grasslands?, or around a swamp? Its possible it could even be a Carpet Python, does he know enough to discount a python?
Ill keep looking, but cant help much with that limited description. And, where abouts in Far North QLD????

Regards
Craig

 

[craig23]

Hi again, just found the Black Striped Snake your talking about, its Rhinoplocephalus nigrostriatus, from Far North QLD. This makes it interesting.. no other snake I can think of looks like this which grows 5ft. MAYBE, a red belly black with extremly high red markings, making the black appear to be a stripe. Or again western browns can be highly variable in markings however I have never seen or heard of one with a single line running down its spine. I would tend to go for the badly described red belly..... will be interesting to se what others think!!!!!!!!!

Craig

 

[michaelh]

Hi Craig,
The picture in the book I have is of Unechis nigrostriatus, when my wife gets home I'll ask her to scan it so I can post it.
The snakes were very pink with a dark stripe running the length of its back.
They were found in a rainforest area near Kuranda which is on the mountain 15 km inland from Cairns which is where I am.
He doesn't think it was a red belly but they are common in the area so quite possible.
He claims they were VERY pink.

Thanks again
Michael


This is U. nigrostriatus which looks like the animals he saw but what he saw ranged in size up to 5 ft and according to the desc. I have U. nig only grows to 40cm.