Bamboo False Cobra

Description

Morphological characteristics of the specimen from Ha Tinh Province agreed well with the description of Stuart and Heatwole (2008): SVL 349 mm, TaL 84 mm (n = 1, female); head distinct from neck; eye large, pupil round; rostral broader than deep; prefrontal longer than internasal, in contact with loreal; frontal longer than snout–frontal distance, nearly equal to parietal; parietal elongated, in contact with frontal; nasal divided; loreal 1/1, not in contact with orbit; preoculars 2/2; postoculars 3/3, bodering anterior temporals; anterior temporal 1/1, posterior temporals 2/2; subpralabials 8/8, fourth and fifth touching the eye, seventh largest; infralabials 10/10, first to fifth bordering chin shields; dorsal scale rows 19-17-15, keeled; ventrals 135; cloacal scale divided; subcaudals 61, paired. Colouration in life. Dorsum brown-yellow with 19 brown bands across the body, the first connected to the neck by a narrow black dorsolateral stripe on each side; a dark bar across prefrontals, continuing as dark stripe through the eye to corner of jaw; anterior part of venter with large quadrangular dark spots, posterior part of belly dull white; venter of tail brown (Fig. 6).

New records and an updated list of snakes from Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam

Ecology

The specimen was collected at 19:45 h on the ground, near the stream. The surrounding habitat was disturbed evergreen karst forest of medium hardwood and shrub.

New records and an updated list of snakes from Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam

Distribution

In Vietnam, Pseudoxenodon bambusicola has been recorded from Lao Cai, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An provinces and Hanoi City (Nguyen et al. 2009; Dau et al. 2024). Elsewhere, this species is known from China, Laos and Thailand (Uetz et al. 2025).

New records and an updated list of snakes from Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam