Green whip snake in my garden

[Massimo Trentin]

I found this guy in my garden,under a rose tree and, as there's a cat wandering around my house,I decided to take him to another safer place...
Here's the black guy looking at my camera not so happy
Note that all g.w. snakes of my area (NE Italy) are melanic

[Massimo Trentin]

As I tried to catch him,he ritired towards the hen-house,where I was able to get him.
A male of nearly 90 cm a little bit thin (but maybe I'm influenced by my corn snake that's almost a whale ).
Here are a couple of shots of his head....

[Massimo Trentin]

Then I looked at the tale to sex it and I discovered it was injured and the very end was missing,but both looked like they were getting better.
Maybe an attempt to escape to a predator or an injury given by some rat or...who knows ?

[Ruggero M.]

Thanks, Massimo!

Interesting to know (for me, at least) that the viridiflavus near Vicenza are already all black!

Maybe I don't see well, but the subcaudal scales seem to me to be all undivided... Is it actually so?

[Massimo Trentin]

Hello Ruggero and thanks for the comment .
Well,at first I didn't point it out at all,but yes... looks like they're all undivided.
Unfortunately I have a bad image of the cloaca (it's blurred ),but I'll upload it if can help.
Here's another better crop of the near tail wound.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

A bit off topic, but I've always associated the name "green whip snake" with Ahaetulla species, whereas I believe this damaged viridiflavus goes by the name "western whip snake" in Arnold and subsequent authors. It's never really green in any case

[Massimo Trentin]

Thanks Jeroen and...yes,you're right,but looking for the right name (as I didn't know how it's called in english ) I found both on Wikipedia (green & western whip) to identify the same snake so I took the 1st.
Clearly,I was wrong .

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

No worries. Wikipedia is full of weirdness.

[Mario Schweiger]

No worries. Wikipedia is full of weirdness.

Not realy true: "(dark) Green whip snake" is also the name in some books - even "new" ones, e.g. Les Reptiles de France, Belgique,Luxemb. ....

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

No worries. Wikipedia is full of weirdness.

Not realy true: "(dark) Green whip snake" is also the name in some books - even "new" ones, e.g. Les Reptiles de France, Belgique,Luxemb. ....

Maybe they copied Wikipedia .
To my mind, it seems logical to use the vernacular names as proposed by the more authoritative publications in a certain language. If not, I am going to use a translation from the Dutch name from now on = "yellow-green wrath snake".