Oviposition and Early Growth of Unfed Neonates of the Mountain Wolf Snake Lycodon ruhstrati ruhstrati (Squamata: Colubridae)

Abstract

A captive female mountain wolf snake (Lycodon ruhstrati ruhstrati) from Taiwan laid ten eggs (length=35.22 mm, width=10.08 mm, and mass=2.5 g on average) on 26 August 2002. Eight of these eggs hatched after 49 days, and six hatchlings survived. During the first month, these surviving neonates (snout-vent length [SVL]= 156.8 mm, tail length [TL]=56.9 mm, and body mass [BM]=2.2 g on average at hatching), left unfed, grew in average by 10.4% in SVL and 8.5% in TL, but lost 13.8% of BM. Another Taiwanese female, collected on 18 February 2006 as a road-kill, had eight eggs in the oviducts.