Austrelaps ramsayi
2 Highlands Copperhead at Reidsdale, NSW
Identify this sighting
| Austrelaps ramsayi | WillO | 19 Sep 2024 | ||
| Austrelaps superbus | wombey | 15 Sep 2024 | ||
| Austrelaps ramsayi | Csteele4 | 14 Sep 2024 | ||
| Pseudonaja textilis | CarbonAI | 14 Sep 2024 | ||
| Austrelaps superbus | Csteele4 | 14 Sep 2024 |
Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.
User's notes
Unfortunately deceased on the side of the road.
7 comments
14 Sep 2024
ID was provided by a group expert on a snake ID page, but I'm not confident given there are no other sightings in our region of this species.
14 Sep 2024
Well, it is Austrelaps, but whether it is superbus or ramsayi is the issue. It looks more like superbus to me, closer to the coast and the white on the labial scales barely making one third of the scale. It would be worth hearing other views.
14 Sep 2024
@wombey the IDer on the Snake ID page has since retracted her ID and called it A ramsayi, so I remain confused. I know the colouration is highly variable, and I've seen a lot of ramsayi over the years at home in the Flat so I wouldn't be surprised, bur still...
15 Sep 2024
I'm happy to go with the consensus and call it superbus in the absence of any other views
18 Sep 2024
My thoughts on this identification for Austrelaps:
Firstly there is still some uncertainty as to whether superbus even occurs in NSW (many records of superbus in NSW were made before ramsayi was described) . There are no records of superbus in NSW listed in reliable field guides (Swan, Sadlier and Shea 2022, Wilson and Swan 2021; however Cogger 2014 records it as occurring through southern Victoria to the extreme south-eastern corner of NSW). Secondly, based on the photo, we have to determine whether (for it to be A. ramsayi) the pale anterior edge of the upper labial scales is distinct and whether that pale colour covers more than one third of each labial scale in adults. Based only on that one character this individual has characteristics of both species (ramsayi and superbus) ie about half the labials have distinct pale colour greater than 1/3 of the scale. So I would recommend we leave this as ramsayi (noting also Csteele4' comments).
Firstly there is still some uncertainty as to whether superbus even occurs in NSW (many records of superbus in NSW were made before ramsayi was described) . There are no records of superbus in NSW listed in reliable field guides (Swan, Sadlier and Shea 2022, Wilson and Swan 2021; however Cogger 2014 records it as occurring through southern Victoria to the extreme south-eastern corner of NSW). Secondly, based on the photo, we have to determine whether (for it to be A. ramsayi) the pale anterior edge of the upper labial scales is distinct and whether that pale colour covers more than one third of each labial scale in adults. Based only on that one character this individual has characteristics of both species (ramsayi and superbus) ie about half the labials have distinct pale colour greater than 1/3 of the scale. So I would recommend we leave this as ramsayi (noting also Csteele4' comments).
20 Sep 2024
OK - thanks John - i see you already made the change, sorry to have overwritten it!
Location information
- Coordinates 149.833795-35.532572
- Altitude 709.0m
- Places Reidsdale, NSW
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 14 Sep 2024 04:04 PM Recorded on
- Csteele4 Recorded by
- Deceased Animal health
Collections
Species information
- Austrelaps ramsayi Scientific name
- Highlands Copperhead Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1759.9m Recorded at altitude
Record quality
Quality score
6 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species