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Text and photos by Nick Baker, unless otherwise stated

 EcologyAsia 2008
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Elegant Bronzeback
   



Male, photographed at Taman Negara, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia.
 

Family : COLUBRIDAE
Species: Dendrelaphis formosus
Maximum Size : 1.4 metres

References :
 

A species of lowland rainforests, the beautiful Elegant Bronzeback is almost exclusively arboreal in habits, rarely descending to the ground. It feeds mainly on tree-dwelling geckoes and skinks, and is diurnal.

Its body is long, and extremely slender. Its distinguishing features include the large eye, which is at least half the diameter of the thickness of the head, and larger in the male than in the female. A thick, black stripe extends from the tip of the snout, through the eye, to some distance along the upper flank.

The top of the head is brown, and this continues as a broad, brown stripe which extends along the length of the vertebral line. The  flanks along the anterior half of the body are bright pale green to yellow-green.

The Elegant Bronzeback occurs in southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo and Java.


The dorsal scales are bronze, bounded anteriorly by black scales. The flanks are yellow and the ventral scales white.