Diurnal and crepuscular. Capable of tolerating much ecological change and is fast in occupying newly cultivated lands.
Least Concern
A medium to large, slender snake. Largest Egyptian specimen has a total length of 1,445 mm. Tail long, tail / total length = 0.28-0.30; nostril in a divided nasal; loreal elongate, same length as nasals; 8 supralabials, fourth and fifth enter the eye, 10-12 infralabials; 158-172 ventrals, 91-117 paired subcaudals, dorsals smooth, 17 scale rows around mid-body, anal divided. Dorsum with 3 broad brown-gray longitudinal stripes, edged with black, interspersed with narrower yellowish lines; a thin vertebral line; several transverse dark bars on the posterior of the head and nape; preocular, postoculars and supralabials yellowish. Venter yellow, often with two lateral, narrow, dark lines. Young more contrasting than adults.
Nile Valley and Delta. Widespread in the Delta, the Suez Canal zone, Fayoum Depression, and along the entire Nile Valley from Cairo to Aswan. No recent records from the region now inundated by Lake Nasser, although the sp'ecies was reported from that region previously (Marx 1968).The only records outside the general Nile Valley area are two road casualties found in Wadi El Arish, just south of El Arish in North Sinai, on two separate occasions in 1994 and 1996. The species most likely has been accidentally introduced with produce or other material originating from the Nile Valley. Similarly a Ptyodactylus hasselquistii population of Nilotic origin was found recently at Zaranik (Baha El Din and Attum 2000).
Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding southern Africa. Erroneously reported from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (Schleich et al. 1996). Might occur in southwest Arabia (Gasperetti 1988).
In Egypt largely confined to fluvial habitats of the Nile Valley. Found in marginal cultivated lands, fallow fields, on canal banks, wetland margins, and nearby semi-desert.
Common and widespread. Large numbers are collected by animal traders.
