Desert Banded Snake

About the Desert Banded Snake

Simoselaps bertholdi, also known commonly as Jan's banded snake or the southern desert banded snake, is a species of burrowing mildly venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to Australia. The specific epithet bertholdi honours German physician and naturalist Arnold Adolph Berthold.

S. bertholdi grows to an average total length (including tail) of 30 cm (12 in). S. bertholdi is oviparous, with an average clutch size of four. The geographic range of S. bertholdi covers a broad swathe of arid inland Australia from central and western South Australia and the south-west of the Northern Territory, westwards across Western Australia to the western coast of the continent.

Boulenger GA (1896). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume III., Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ).... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiv + 727 pp. + Plates I–XXV. (Rhynchelaps bertholdi, pp. 362–363).

Cogger HG (2014). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, Seventh... Wikipedia →