Food habits and reproductive biology of Australian snakes of the genus Hemiaspis (Elapidae)

The crepuscular Hemiaspis damelii is found in inland and near-coastal regions of central-E Australia, and has a diet almost restricted to frogs; H. signata, both day-active and crepuscular, lives near the coast along most of the E Australian seaboard, and eats frogs and lizards. Both species are viviparous. Most gravid H. signata were collected from November-March; most gravid H. damelii were found in December-February. Fecundity was higher in H. damelii (range 4-16, mean 10.3) than in H. signata from Queensland (3-15, 7.7) or New South Wales (3-15, 6.4), in part a consequence of the larger maternal SVL in the former. -P.J.Jarvis