From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Xenopeltis unicolor is one of two known species of sunbeam snakes (the other being X. hainanensis). Found in southern China and southeast Asia, it is an egg laying snake, producing up to 10 eggs at a time. It tends to live in open areas such as forest clearings, gardens and parks. Its diet is varied but its primary food sources are frogs, reptiles, including other snakes, and small mammals. Like the Mexican burrowing snake, X. unicolor has evolved to burrow and spends most of its life below ground. It has a wedged shaped, narrow head for pushing through the soil. It grows on average to roughly 1 m (3 ft 3 in). Its most defining characteristic is its iridescent, highly polished scales that give this snake its common name. They have a layer of dark pigmentation just below the surface on each scale that enhances the iridescence.They are constrictors, hunting by suffocating their prey in their muscular coils.This is a primitive form of snake with both boid and python characteristics(which family it falls under is still debatable), with retracting teeth.
