Iberian Grass Snake

About the Iberian Grass Snake

Natrix astreptophora, the red-eyed grass snake or the Iberian grass snake, is a species of natricine snake found in the Iberian Peninsula, south of France, and some coastal areas in the Maghreb, from Tangier to Tunisia. Long considered a subspecies of the European grass snake, Natrix natrix, the subspecies was split off from that taxon in 2016.

The red-eyed grass snake was formally described by the Spanish herpetologist Victor Lopez Seoane in 1903 as Natrix astreptophora based on specimens from Galicia, Spain (later restricted to A Coruña). The species was subsequently treated as a subspecies in the grass snake complex (Natrix natrix sensu lato). The North African populations of the red-eyed grass snake were described as a separate subspecies of the grass snake, Tropidonotus natrix algericus, by the German herpetologist Günther Hecht in 1930. The taxonomy of the grass snake complex remained unsettled throughout the 20th century, with various authors recognizing anywhere from four to fourteen subspecies in the complex. A 2012 study of genetic data, morphology, and bone characteristics found the red-eyed grass snake to hybridize only very rarely with the barred grass snake... Wikipedia →