About Hierophis viridiflavus (Lacépède, 1789)
Hierophis viridiflavus, commonly called the green whip snake, is a slender snake species with a small but well-defined head, prominent eyes that have circular pupils, and smooth scales. Its background body color is greenish-yellow, but this base color is mostly hidden by heavy, somewhat irregular bands of dark green or black, especially across the front half of the snake. The snake's underparts are grey or yellowish, and its tail has narrow longitudinal stripes. Juvenile green whip snakes are grey in color, and develop their full adult patterning and coloration by roughly their fourth year. This species reaches a total length of approximately 150 cm (60 in). In the northeastern portion of its range, which includes Sicily and southern Italy, most individuals are entirely blackish in color. A larger variant of this snake, reaching up to two meters (6.5 ft) in length and often completely solid black, is found in Italy and Malta. It is known locally in the region as 'Il Biacco', and was previously classified as Coluber viridiflavus carbonarius. This species is found across Andorra, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland, and may also be present in Luxembourg. Two subspecies are currently recognized: the melanic H. v. carbonarius and the striped H. v. viridiflavus. The melanic subspecies lives in the eastern part of the species' range, while the striped subspecies occurs in the western range, with a contact zone stretching across most of northern Italy. The natural habitats of Hierophis viridiflavus include temperate forests, temperate shrubland, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, arable land, pastureland, plantations, rural gardens, and urban areas.
