Terrific Bronzeback

The terrific bronzeback is a Sulawesi Dendrelaphis first described from Gorontalo. Its taxonomic history includes treatment as a form of D. caudolineatus before revision restored it as a species. Females grow larger than males and average about 178 ventral scales, compared with about 172 in males. The Latin name terrificus means terrible or terrifying rather than describing a measured behavioural trait (Reptile Database).

This snake is active by day, lives fully in trees and lays eggs. Reports from the Philippines have appeared in older literature, but the database notes that later work excludes the species there, leaving Sulawesi as its accepted range. The accessible account withheld the complete diagnosis and gave no verified prey, body-length range, clutch size or incubation period, so those details are not inferred from other bronzebacks (Reptile Database).