I observed some thing that resemble an unfertilized egg in my tank of captive Homalopsis buccata. I am curious about this because as far as i know there is only oviparous species who could lay an unfertlized egg. Anybody can explain what is this and suggest some paper about it? Thanks
Not only oviparous species but also viviparous can lay unfertlized eggs . The unfertlized egg from viviparous female just like quail egg yolk.
Yanqing is quite right. Viviparous snakes simply retain viable, fertilized ova in their oviducts until they are ready to "hatch." Usually, they lay the eggs (=embryos encased in embryonic membranes) which hatch immediately after being laid (sometimes before). The eggs of viviparous snakes, of course, lack the leathery shell of oviparous species, but otherwise they are very similar (a yolk-filled capsule).
The slugs in your photo are ova that either did not get fertilized or failed to develop. One of them appears to have been partially resorbed (which is common) and the other one (top) is pretty much intact (most of the yolk still present). Viviparous snakes often pass these slugs along with viable young.
I'm not sure where to tell you to look for a paper on the subject, but any snake husbandry book should mention the topic of unfertilized ova.
I will refresh this topic, because it is interesting me a bit. Is there any option in captive breed viviparous snakes (I mean Corallus genus) that we can do to avoid this kind of situation, when the adult female lay slugs instead of alive newborns? Some of the breeders recommend to keep a female with male as long as possible (longer than POS occurs).
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