Aparallactus nigriceps, or the Mozambique centipede-eater, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of venomous rear-fanged snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 in the Atractaspididae

Atractaspididae

The Atractaspididae are a family of snakes found in Africa and the Middle East. Currently, 12 genera are recognized.-Description:This family includes many genera formerly classed in other families, on the basis of fang type. It includes fangless , rear-fanged , fixed-fanged , and viper-like species...

 family.

Geographic range

It is endemic to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and is found in southeastern Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, around Inhambane

Inhambane

Inhambane, Terra de Boa Gente is a city located in southern Mozambique, lying on Inhambane Bay, 470 km northeast of Maputo. It is the capital of the Inhambane Province and according to the 2008 census has a population of 65,837, growing from the 1997 census of 54,157...

.

Description

It is reddish brown dorsally, and whitish ventrally. The top of the head and the nape of the neck are black, the black on the nape edged with yellowish. A pair of yellowish spots may be present behind the parietal shields. The sides of the head are yellowish, with the shields bordering the eye black.

Adults may attain a total length of 25.5 cm (10 inches). A juvenile 103 mm (4 inches) in total length has a tail 17 mm (⅝ inch) long.

Smooth dorsal scales in 15 rows. Ventrals 110-149; anal plate entire; subcaudals 21-40, entire.

Portion of rostral visible from above about one third as long as its distance from the frontal. Internasals much shorter than the prefrontals. Frontal 1⅓ times as long as broad, much longer than its distance from the end of the snout, a little shorter than the parietals. Nasal entire, in contact with the preocular. One postocular. Temporals 1+1 (the first sometimes absent). Six upper labials, second and third entering the eye, fourth (or fourth and fifth) in contact with the parietal. Three lower labials in contact with the anterior chin shield. Anterior chin shields in contact with the mental, slightly larger than the posterior chin shields.