It is a rare moment where I can get the door open and the camera in position without having this guy pull a “Speedy Gonzales” and disappear into one of his many hides
I really love the outlining this species has on ever scale. And also their Goth eyeliner LOL
Wow! A beaked snake of some kind? The scales are definitely very unique! As well as the eyes!
Are the beaked snakes colubrids or lamprophiids?
Duh never mind! I saw it in the description part. Rufus beaked snake!
I think they are colubrids……
I have seen red beaked snakes but not the Rufus……
That guy is just super freaking cool!!
I just googled it, and looks like both of us are wrong. They’re Psamophiids which are elapoids like lamprophiids but are not lamprophiids themselves.
When I have the room to set up a nice big naturalistic looking enclosure (would love a 6x3x2) it is for one of these guys. They’re absolutely amazing looking. Only thing, I wish there personally was more trackable.
Great sleuthing! We stand corrected!!! 
They’re very rewarding in naturalistic set ups. I do wish it was easier to get new blood (or even trades to cross bloodlines) into the states, but I do not see that happening any time soon unfortunately.
What beautiful little faces! I imagine a visit to @t_h_wyman’s place would be a lot like a visit to the zoo. Plenty of beautiful, unusual animals in plenty of bewitching setups.
Thank you for this amazing picture! Yeah I sadly noticed that trend as I begin to look for possible sources of them. They’re such interesting species, and sad to see them not more captively available.
Colubroids under the section Psamophiids
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I hate that these are called “rufus” because, really, they are not. The “rufus” epithet is a butchering of ‘rufous’ meaning “coloured brownish-red”. It is certainly applicable to Rhamphiophis oxyrhincus (which I also own) but is completely lost on this species, Rhamphiophis rostratus. But because some dumb naturalist back in the day grouped these two obviously different species together under the same initially, the “rufus” is now stuck to both of them… 
And to make matters worse, there are some very unethical people that have taken to selling baby Rhamphiophis oxyrhincus as “red” beaked snakes, which they are not because the real reds are Rhamphiophis rubropunctatus and they are pretty much no longer available in the hobby so on the very rare occasion when the real deal become available, they fetch a big price
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I do enjoy setting up naturalistic vivs LOL
That whole Family gets complicated and much of it hasn’t been deep dived with genetics testing etc etc. Many of the classifications or order of is older (though obv not all) Hence much of it being moved around randomly and stuff as more research is done or testing. It’s a fascinating area tho - the Lamprophis family and genus, so fascinating.
I’m by far a total n00b in the area but have read enough to be deeply intrigued, tho deeper and more specific info is hard to find, especially on specific species, localities, sub species, genus etc. Glad we have people keeping them and possibly breeding them! The more we have, the easier that kind of thing becomes. Even scientific studies can only do so much at a time, especially with wild only specimens.
(Just as a note, even the House Snakes themselves are in both Boaedon and the Lamprophis genus, like the Cape House Snake vs Aurora House Snake respectively…)
Yes, it is a very interesting family. A few months ago I listened to an episode of the reptiles and research podcast where they interviewed Francis Cosquieri about the genus Psammophis (African Sand Snakes) They are quite unique snakes and sound rather intelligent. I would love to learn more about them and their relatives in the future.
Oh how cool! Sounds neat, thanks for the tip! I’ll keep an ear out for info, always down to learn more about unique and interesting specieslgenus/etc! 
Check out psammophis.nl
TONS of info there on the group
Gorgeous snake! I love the black edges on the scales. Makes him look like he’s made of chainmail. And I love the unique head shape. Super cool species!
