Thai National Parks

The twin-barred tree snake (Chrysopelea pelias) is a species of snake found in Southeast Asia. It is also called the banded flying snake. It can glide, as with all species of its genus Chrysopelea, by stretching the body into a flattened strip using its ribs. It is mostly found in moist forests and can cover a horizontal distance of about 100 metres in a glide from the top of a tree. It is an oviparous snake.

Chrysopelea pelias begins gliding by jumping in an upward position that seems to be different from the behavior of other limbless vertebrates. This way of moving, as seen in a closely related genus, might have been a behavioral precursor to the evolution of gliding in snakes.

Chrysopelea pelias has an overlapping range with the paradise tree snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) in Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo and Indonesia. However, Chrysopelea pelias is not nearly as common as the paradise tree snake.

Distribution

The twin-barred tree snake is found in Thailand, Malaysia (Malaya, Penang Island, Pulau Tioman, and East Malaysia), Indonesia (Bangka, Java, Mentawai Archipelago, , Natuna Archipelago, Nias, Riau Archipelago, Sumatra, Borneo); Brunei Darussalam; Burma ;India, Western Ghats Singapore.

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