DAHONG-PALAY, DESCRIBED

Ahaetulla prasina is a widespread species that has been recorded from Bhutan, northeastern India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Bali, and several other islands in Indonesia. In the Philippines, it is represented by three subspecies, prasina (Palawan), preocularis (most of the Philippines), and suluensis (Sulu Archipelago).

As a rear-fanged snake, the fangs of Ahaetulla are unsurprisingly situated at the rear of the upper maxilla, located beneath the posterior edge of the eye. However, positioned at the middle of the upper maxilla are one to two enlarged, fang-like teeth.

The vertebral scales are trapezoidal in shape; this is a feature seen in only a very small number of snake genera around the world. The snakes average lengths of about 1.5 meters, with the females being longer than the males.

Subspecies preocularis is separated from subspecies prasina (Ahaetulla prasina subsp. prasina) in having a single anal scale and two preocular scales (versus one), and the internasal scales being not in contact with the labial (lip) scales. Rather obviously, this is the snake that figures in the Tagalog dahongpalay narrative as this is the subspecies that is present in the Katagalugan region.

The snakes are most commonly green throughout their known range, although Negros has green and red forms, Panay has the red form, and southern Luzon has both green and yellow forms. Whatever the color scheme is, there is always a pale lateral stripe separating the ventral scales from the rest of the body.