Common Wolf Snake/අළු රදනකයා/ අළු පොළඟා [Alu Radanakaya/Alu Polanga] (Lycodon aulicus)

A very common, non-venomous, terrestrial snake occurs in secondary forests and anthropogenic areas from low country to the hills up to about 1000 m a.s.l. Nocturnal and hides in crevices of loose brickworks, under flower pots, stacks of wood, logs, leaf litter, rubbish heaps and even in houses during the day time. Common Wolf Snake is also known as 'House Snake'' since it frequently enters houses at night (So it is often mistaken for the highly venomous Kraits and killed.) It is also a good climber. When cornered it hides its head underneath the coils of its body (See top left picture) and sometimes vibrates its tail. Common Wolf Snake is an aggressive snake and bites savagely when picked up and handled. It feeds on frogs, geckoes, skinks, rats and other lizards. It lays 5 to 15 eggs.

පුල්ලි දත් කැටියා (Oligodon sublineatus)

 වැඩුණු සතුන් සෙන්ටිමීටර 26 සිට 31 පමණ දිග කුඩා, නිර්විෂ, මෙරටට ආවේනික භෞමික සර්පයෙකි පුල්ලි දත් කැටියා. දිවා කාලයේ හැසිරෙන සර්පයෙකු වන අතර හවස් යාමයේ බොහෝවිට ක්‍රියාශීලී වේ. පහත රට තෙත් කලාපයේ සිට කඳුකරයේ මධ්‍යම උස් මට්ටම් දක්වා වනාන්තර වල මෙන්ම මිනිස් ජනාවාස ආශ්‍රිතවද  හමුවේ. වියලි කලාපයේ ඇතැම් ස්ථාන වලින්ද වාර්තා වූ බවට වූ පැරණි වාර්තා තිබේ. දිරායන කොළරොඩු, ගල් යට, ගස් කොටන් යට මෙන්ම රොන්මඩ සහිත කාණු වලද සැඟවී සිටී. උරග බිත්තර, කෘමීන්, මකුළුවන් මෙන්ම කුඩා උරගයන්ද ආහාර කර ගන්නා පුල්ලි දත් කැටියා කලබල වූ විට බෝලයක් මෙන් ගුලිවී ඇතැම්විට ශරීරයේ ඉදිරි කොටස තරමක් විශාල කර, හිස පැතලි කර  එය ත්‍රිකෝණාකාර ආකාරය දක්වා පොළොඟුන් අනුකරණය කරයි.

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කුණු මී කරවලා[Kunu Mee Karawala]/මල් රදනකයා[Mal Radanakaya]/Flowery Wolf Snake(Lycodon fasciolatus)

An endemic Non venomous snake occurs in all parts of the island up to about 2000 m a.s.l. Rather common in urban and sub urban areas. It is found under flower pots, piles of stones, loose soil, cracks and crevices of walls and parapets in houses, stacked bricks and piles of woods. Flowery Wolf Snake is a nocturnal terrestrial snake and it feeds on geckos, other snakes, rodents, insects, etc. It is very aggressive snake especially at night and savagely bite when handling. When cornered it hides its head underneath the coil of its body and sometimes empty its bowels with a smell similar to rotten dead mice. Hence its Sinhalese name කුණු මී කරවලා. It is an oviparous snake and lays 8 to 10 eggs at one time. Flowery Wolf Snakes often enter human habitations and are killed on sight as many believes it as a venomous snake. Some authors considered Lycodon osmanhilli as a color variety of Lycodon aulicus. 

Streaked Kukri Snake/Dumerill's Kukri Snake/පුල්ලි දත් කැටියා [Pulli Datkatiya] (Oligodon sublineatus)

Streaked Kukri Snake is a small (26-31 cm in length) non-venomous and terrestrial snake endemic to the Sri Lanka. It is diurnal in habit and active mostly during the dusk. Streaked Kukri Snake is mainly distributed from wet lowlands to mid hills (Few earlier records also available from some localities of the dry lowlands), both in forested areas and the vicinity of human habitations.  It hides under decaying leaves, logs, stones and inside silted drains. It feeds mainly on reptile eggs, insects, spiders and small reptiles. When cornered it twist itself into a ball and sometime slightly expands fore body and flattens its head and makes it triangular, mimicking vipers.  

සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න >>

කටකළුවා/මුදුහබරා[Katakaluva/Muduhabara]/Trinket Snake (Coeloganthus helena)

The Trinket snake is a common non-venomous, terrestrial snake widely distributed in lowlands up to about 600m elevation. It can be found both in forests and anthropological habitats mostly closer to water bodies. It is active during morning hours as well as dusk and considered as a diurnal snake though nocturnal habitats have been observed too. When cornered Trinket snake expands its fore body and open mouth displaying its black color. Hence the vernacular name Katakaluwa (One with a black mouth). It feeds on rodents, frogs and lizards. 

* One depicting in above photographs is a juvenile albino snake with about 36mm length, encountered in a home garden. Distinct black lines of the neck  region and black streak behind the eye are faint of this specimen unlike it is with normal snakes. It had red eyes as it is always with albino animals.

ගැරඩියා/කහ ගැරඩියා/Garadiya/Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosa)

Rat snake is the second largest snake in the country with some specimens observed with 3000mm long while many exceed 2400mm in length (de Silva, Anslem & Jinasena Jayantha 2009). It is a widely distributed snake from sea level to higher hills including some off-shore islands in Jaffna peninsula (Somaweera R., 2006) while common in the low country and foot hills.  It is mostly living in anthropogenic habitats like home gardens, plantations and paddy fields since its main food frogs, toads and rats are abundant in such places. Other than that it feeds on lizards, birds, snakes, palm squirrels, bats etc.  Rat snake is active during the day time and it is mainly a terrestrial snake though usually climbs trees and roofs in search of its prey.  It is a non-venomous snake though may bite savagely when cornered. Its usual defense habit is raise its fore body and hissing like a cobra while sometime also produces a deep long groaning sound.  Rat snake ‘dances’ with two snakes raise their heads from the ground and bodies coiled around each other are often observed as shown in above picture too. It was earlier believed that it is a courtship dance of a male and a female but it is a combat dance by the males (de Silva, P.H.D.H, 1980) . Female rat snake lays 5-10 eggs in a termite mound and stays with the eggs coil herself around them.

කබර රදනකයා(Kabara Radanakaya)/ඉරි කරවලා(Iri karawala)/Shaw’s Wolf Snake/ (Lycodon striatus)

Shaw’s Wolf Snake is a small (100-400mm) terrestrial and nocturnal snake distributed mostly in wet zone though occurs rarely also in intermediate and dry zone areas. It is a non venomous and inoffensive snake, which balls itself and hides its head underneath these coils (See right bottom picture) when disturbed.  It preys mainly on geckos and skinks during the night and stay under decaying logs, loose soil, earth cracks and leaf litter during the day time. Parental care of eggs is observed among these snakes and it lays 2-3 eggs.

පඳුරු හාල්දණ්ඩා[Paduru Haaldanda]/Boulenger’s Bronze-back (Dendrelaphis bifrenalis)

Diurnal and non-venomous snake recorded from  wet and intermediate zones of lowlands to mid hills. However there are references of finding it from Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Trincomalee of northern dry zone*. Arboreal and feeds on frogs, geckos, skinks and agamid lizards. Sometimes descends to the ground and it is said that when moving on the ground it has a habit of keeping its head and part of fore body erect(Snakes of Sri Lanka A coloured atlas – Anslem de silva & jayantha Jinasena - 2009). This picture of Boulenger’s bronze-back devouring probably a Spotted tree frog was taken in a shrub jungle of Ambagaspitiya of Gampaha district.

* Though Anslem de Silva (Snakes of Sri Lanka A coloured atlas – Anslem de silva & jayantha Jinasena - 2009) has given Wall (1921) as the reference for its distribution in Mulativu and Vavuniya there is not such a mentioning in Frank Wall’s Snakes of Ceylon(1921) page 218 where distribution of Dendrelaphis bifrenalis only includes Punagalla, Yatiyantota, Balangoda and Galle. 

ඇහැටුල්ලා[Ahatulla]/ Green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta)

Mildly venomous snake of gardens, forests, scrublands, cultivation etc. from lowlands to about 1000 m a.s.l of the hill country.  Arboreal and diurnal. It preys on lizards, frogs, small mammals, and birds. There are records of even tadpoles, fishes and other snakes in its diet (Sri Lankawe Sarpayan – Ruchira Somaweera 2006) 

Common bronze-back/තුරු හාල්දණ්ඩා/මූකලන් හාල්දණ්ඩා[Thuru/Mookalan Haal Danda] (Dendrelaphis schokari)

Non–venomous arboreal snake inhabiting forest and open areas of all climatic zones of island from lowlands to about 750m a.s.l. Diurnal and though a tree snake it is observed of foraging on land as well in searching of its prey which consist of frogs, lizards, geckos, skinks, insects and also eggs of small birds. It can make long jumps among trees if necessary while chasing its prey. It can be distinguished easily from other Dendrelaphis species by having a cream color spotted line on its olive green dorsal from neck to mid fore body along the spine.