The Broadley’s African house snake (Boaedon broadleyi sp. nov.) is known to exist in four localities in Africa. Boaedon subniger can be found in Northern Somalia
Researchers have described two new species of African house snake of the genus Boaedon based on the genetic sequencing of 18 currently recognized snakes of the Boaedon genus.
The Broadley’s African house snake (Boaedon broadleyi sp. nov.) is known to exist in four localities in Africa, found in elevations ranging from 750 meters up to 3000 meters above sea level. It is found in Ethiopian regional States in Afar, Oromia, Somali and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ National Regional State. It is also thought to exist in Northern Somalia. It lives in savannas, grasslands and woodlands.
The Broadley’s African house snake holotype was a female that measured 1196 mm snout to vent length. it has a sub triangular head and is light olive in coloration as well as beige, light brown to what the researchers call almost brown, with two white stripes on the side of the head. What is notable is this snake was collected by Dr. Peter Angenstein in the late 1980s and kept in captivity until 2006 by Ralf Hörold. It was then donated to the Zoological Museum Hamburg in Germany that same year.
Boaedon subniger can be found in Northern Somalia in high-altitude semi-arid or arid habitats. The holotype in the study was a juvenile female that was collected by Tomáš Mazuch in 2017. Mazuch donated the specimen to the Zoological Museum Hamburg in 2024. The juvenile snake has a snout to vent length of 222 mm. It features a sub-triangular head and is black in coloration in life.
The complete research paper, Two new species of Boaedon from Ethiopia and Somalia, with a review of the species of East Africa,” can be read on the Zootaxa website.
