East-Four-lined Ratsnake

The blotched snake is a large snake reaching a total body length of up to 2 m, however, in 1930, Constantin Kirițescu mentioned a 2.60 m specimen captured by Dombrovsky in 1901 at Cernavodă, which he personally studied. Some consider that this account takes inspiration from the local legends about giant snakes. The ratio of the head and trunk length to tail length is 3.9 in males and 5.1 in females. The width of the body is 5–6 cm. The head is weakly separated from the neck. The eye is medium in size with a round pupil. The maxillary teeth are of equal length. The blotched snake has 25 dorsal scales (rarely 23 or 27). The lateral scales are smooth. The ventral scales number 187–224 in males and 205–234 in females. They have 56-90 subcaudals. In most cases the anal plate is divided. Each scale has a dark brown spot on a yellowish-white or pinkish-white background. The dark brown pigment predominates. The color of the back varies – adults usually have a tan or reddish-brown dorsal coloration, and juveniles gray or yellowish-brown. On the back there are large, irregular (rhombic or oval), slightly elongated transversally, dark spots. These spots are disposed in 4 rows (4-5 rows in juveniles) longitudinally. …

It is found in southeastern Europe (Albania, southeastern Romania, Republic of Moldova, southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, southern Ukraine, European Turkey), western Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel), southwestern Russia (Dagestan), Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), southwestern Kazakhstan, northwestern Turkmenistan, and western Iran.