''Dendrelaphis formosus'',
commonly known as either the elegant bronzeback or beautiful bronzeback tree snake, is a snake
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...
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 ...
Colubridae
Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ev ...
from
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
Taxonomy
''Dendrelaphis formosus'' belongs to the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
''
Dendrelaphis
''Dendrelaphis'' is a genus of colubrid snakes, distributed from Pakistan, India and southern China to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are over forty described species. Asian specie ...
'', which contains 48 other
described species.
[.]
''Dendrelaphis'' is one of five genera belonging to the vine snake
subfamily Ahaetuliinae
The Ahaetuliinae are a subfamily of the snake family Colubridae that was erected in 2016 and comprises five genera containing 63 species (''Ahaetulla'' 7 species ''Chrysopelea'' species ''Dendrelaphis'' 5 species '' Dryophiops'' speciesand ...
, of which ''Dendrelaphis'' is most closely related to ''
Chrysopelea
''Chrysopelea'', more commonly known as the flying snake or gliding snake is a genus that belongs to the family Colubridae. Flying snakes are mildly venomous, though the venom is dangerous only to their small prey. Their range is in Southeast A ...
'', as shown in the
cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...
below:
Distribution and habitat
The beautiful bronzeback tree snake is native to southern
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...
to the islands of
Sumatra,
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...
and
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
. It inhabits lowland forests up to elevations of .
Behavior
The snake is
diurnal
Diurnal ("daily") may refer to:
General
* Diurnal cycle, any pattern that recurs daily
** Diurnality, the behavior of animals and plants that are active in the daytime
* Diurnal phase shift, a phase shift of electromagnetic signals
* Diurnal tem ...
and fully
arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose num ...
, and has
oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), a ...
reproduction.
It mainly feeds on lizards, but occasionally also frogs.
References
formosus
Pope Formosus (896) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the K ...
Snakes of Asia
Reptiles of Borneo
Reptiles of Brunei
Reptiles of Malaysia
Reptiles of Indonesia
Reptiles of Singapore
Reptiles of Thailand
Reptiles described in 1827
Taxa named by Friedrich Boie
{{colubrid-stub