| Grayia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Serpentes |
| Family: | Colubridae |
| Subfamily: | Grayiinae Vidal, Delmas, David, Cruaud, Couloux & Hedges, 2007 |
| Genus: | Grayia Günther, 1858[1] |
| Species | |
|
Four, see article. | |
Grayia is a genus of snakes, commonly referred to as African water snakes, in the family Colubridae. The genus, which is native to tropical Africa, is the only genus in the colubrid subfamily Grayiinae.
Grayia species are relatively poorly known snakes, at least to herpetologists.[2] Although they are locally abundant, they are notoriously difficult to catch,[3] and occur in areas where field work is difficult. They inhabit seasonal rainforest swamps, streams, and permanent water bodies,[4] eat fish and frogs, and lay eggs in the leaf litter among humid enclosures formed by buttress roots during the dry season.[3] They are unusual in that they deposit their clutch in small batches of three or four eggs at different times at more than one nest site, rather than laying all the eggs at once,[3] a strategy used by some turtles to avoid nest predation, but otherwise undocumented in snakes.
At least one species, G. ornata, is used for food and in medicine by people in Gabon,[2] and evidently is known to them to be nonvenomous; a person who has been bitten by a Grayia snake is believed to be protected for life against bites from other snakes.[2]