Dasypeltis scabra
species of reptile
Dasypeltis scabra, also known commonly as the common egg eater, the egg-eating snake, and the rhombic egg eater, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Africa.
Geographic range
D. scabra is found in sub-Saharan Africa.
Description
D. scabra grows to a total length (tail included) of 40–46 inches (100–120 cm), and has almost toothless jaws. Dorsally, it has a series of rhomboidal dark brown spots on a lighter background. There is an alternating series of brown spots on each side and a distinct V-shaped mark at the back of the neck. Ventrally it is yellowish, either uniform or with dark dots.
Mimicry
It has been suggested that non-venomous D. scabra is a mimic of venomous Echis carinatus, the saw-scaled viper, which it strongly resembles.
Typical specimens of D. scabra even more closely resemble Causus rhombeatus, the rhombic night adder. The colouration of E. carinatus generally tends to be more reddish and brown, instead of shades of grey and black; and the V-shaped mark on its head is more patchy than in the other two species.
“Dasypeltis scabra” enters the record as species of reptile. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dasypeltis, scabra and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Dasypeltis scabra” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dasypeltis, scabra and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2335470. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dasypeltis scabra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.