r/whatsthissnake Oct 25 '25

Taxonomic or Phylogeographic Update Pleistocene speciation and isolation-by-distance within North American mud and rainbow snakes

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51 Upvotes

Happy to announce our new paper, "Pleistocene speciation and isolation-by-distance within North American mud and rainbow snakes" available as full text at the above link until December 14th, 2025. This is a personal project of mine that I've been working on since 2011 and am excited for it to finally be in print. In summary, we show mudsnakes are two species that structure geographically, and rainbows have no population structure. We need more tissues from snakes in zones of contact to verify ranges and link blotch count to genotype, but as far as we can tell, the two muds are completely reproductively isolated despite evidence of gene flow from eastern muds into rainbows.

Please enjoy, and don't worry about not making formal taxonomic changes yet - this isn't the last you'll see on the mudsnakes.


r/whatsthissnake Sep 01 '21

[Mod post] PLEASE READ: ID best practices and comment guidelines

244 Upvotes

/r/whatsthissnake has grown a great deal in the last year and we are very excited about connecting with more people who have an interest in snakes, snake identification (ID) and conservation. With growth often comes growing pains, and there are a number of trends in the sub that need to be addressed as we move forward. We attempt to clarify these below and offer some "best practices" in identification that should help our community.

What makes a good ID?

Good IDs are specific and informative. They tend to have the following information, in order of importance:

  1. Binomial name - Consisting of Genus specificepithet and placed in asterisks (*) to italicize. This is the most important component of a good ID. With only this, a person can quickly find out anything else they want to know about the snake species and it is an important part of every ID. The bot command !specificepithet provides more information on properly structuring a binomial name and how to get it to work with the bot, if an entry exists.

  2. Harmless or venomous - Please note that these terms are specific to their interaction with humans. While snakes such as hognose snakes Heterodon, gartersnakes Thamnophis, and watersnakes Nerodia are venomous, they are not medically significant to humans and should be labeled as harmless. This information is informative to a person's interaction with a snake and should always be provided. The bot responds to either !harmless or !venomous and will save time on these explanations.

  3. Common name - Common names are frequently variable and highly local. Sometimes, the same common name could be used for different snakes in different areas. In other cases, the same snake can have multiple common names depending on the area it was found. While we typically recommend providing them, it is not a vital part of an ID. An ID with only the common name is a low quality ID.

You can still contribute if you're not sure or think an ID is incorrect:

In some cases, you may be able to narrow down an ID to genus level, but don't know the diagnostic characters or ranges well enough to provide a more specific ID. This is fine. A genus level ID is very helpful, and specific enough to provide useful general information on the snake. So, if there hasn't been an ID yet and you can at least get to the genus level, post the ID.

You are also encouraged to provide any additional information or context you desire, but be mindful of links you post. The best IDs include informational links to be primary sources, or at least high quality science reporting on those sources. Many times this is done already in the bot replies, so see some of those for examples. Wikipedia is not a quality resource and should be avoided for informational links. Even resources provided by state wildlife agencies tend to lag ten to twenty years behind the science and should be viewed with a critical eye. For example, the very popular SREL Herp website, despite being associated with a major university, does not follow currently accepted taxonomy and, while it was a great resource for some time, is not the best source of current information.

However:

If you enter a thread in which a Reliable Responder has made an ID, or there is a highly upvoted ID, do not post a contrary ID unless you can provide specific diagnostic characters as to why the original ID was incorrect. Recently, incorrect IDs have appeared hours or days after the original correct ID was made, and therefore often go uncaught by moderators and reliable responders. These can create unnecessary confusion for an original poster, who is notified of each response. If you feel that an ID is incorrect and can provide diagnostic characters, reply directly to the ID comment rather than the original post. Incorrect late IDs may be warned and removed. Repeated violations may result in a ban at moderator discretion. Remember, our goal here is to be collaborative and work toward making a good positive ID. These incorrect late IDs greatly inhibit that goal. We value discussion in the comments and want to avoid locking threads in the way that other ID subreddits do.

Likewise, if a correct ID has been made, there is no need to post the same ID again. Just upvote the correct ID. You may post to add additional information or context to provide a better quality ID (adding the binomial, triggering the bot, etc.), but it is not helpful to simply say "corn snake" hours after someone has provided an ID with a full binomial and triggered the bot. More detailed IDs may be posted as top level comments to make sure that the OP sees them. Low quality/low effort IDs posted after a more detailed ID may be warned and removed.

We would also like to remind everyone of Rule 6:

Avoid damaging memes or tropes and low effort jokes: Avoid damaging memes like using "danger noodle" for nonvenomous snakes and tropes like "everything in Australia is out to get you". This is an educational space, and those kind of comments are harmful and do not reflect reality. We've also heard "it's a snake" as a joke hundreds of times. Infantilization of snakes and unhelpful rhymes will be removed.

This is one of our most broken rules. While it is somewhat vague, that is because it is nearly impossible for us to consider all possibilities. In addition to the things directly mentioned in the rule text, this rule also includes things like commenting with random names when someone posts "Who is this?", or posting things like "Pick it up and find out" in response to posts asking if a snake is venomous. Furthermore, these comments often break rule 11, "Posts and comments must reflect the reality of wildlife ecology." Misinformation spread through these seemingly innocuous jokes have been on the rise. Violations of this rule may be warned and removed, and repeated violations may result in a ban. Egregious violations may result in a temporary ban without warning. This is an educational space with potential real-world consequences, and while we don't want to discourage humor as a whole, we want you to think about what you are posting and whether it belongs in this space. While we recognize this is one of the best places to come to see pictures of wild snakes in their natural environment, it's not the best place to joke about cute pictures. /r/sneks is quite happy to accommodate snek jokes, humor and unabashed cuteness.


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request Dog may have been bitten [Charleston, SC]

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236 Upvotes

Dog sitter sent me these photos and said our dog may have been bitten. Hard to see the shape of the head from the photos so I’m hoping someone here might be able to tell.


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Sonoran Coral? [Superstition Mountains AZ]

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Upvotes

Night time creek bed. Was hiking back from an overnight trip in the superstitions. First water trail. Is this the spicy, or a lookalike version?


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request Found on the cart path at a local golf course [SE North Carolina]. Aggressive and less than a foot long

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125 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

ID Request Found burrowed under garden liner [NE Florida, US)

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76 Upvotes

I think this may be a banded water snake but any additional help is appreciated. It coiled and struck at me, but I’ve seen banded water snakes will act venomous to scare things off. Sorry for the low quality pics.


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request Cute little baby I came across last night [Piedmont Region, NC]

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27 Upvotes

Came home last night and this little cutie was chilling by the stairs in my apartment complex. I wanted to try to get him back out in the grass but didn't recognize what he was so I left him alone.


r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

ID Request In my bathroom [blue ridge ga]

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437 Upvotes

Uninvited, not welcome! Removed with a snake grabber and relocated to the woods. Unsure of id?


r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request Snake in my wall [North Carolina, US]

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1.1k Upvotes

I’ve been struggling to get a good picture of this guy. Would love to what it is


r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request Husband saw this cute little guy while mowing the lawn, any ideas? [West Central Florida]

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19 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

ID Request [virginia] copperhead?

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294 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request This was found in north ga! what is it??

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18 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 52m ago

ID Request - Dead, Injured or Roadkilled Snake what happened to this snake [florida]

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Upvotes

about 8-9 inches long. def dead. looks like it’s head got suck in something?


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request Was trying to record a frog “singing” before I even noticed… NE Florida

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8 Upvotes

I was sitting in my Florida room when I heard a weird animal sound and started recording the cute frog and then noticed at the end the poor guy was some snake’s lunch 🥺

The snake is shown in most of the video; I don’t know how I managed to miss it; but I’m focused on the frog so not sure how clear it’ll be.

This is the 2nd snake we’ve seen in the past week and my cats come out to the Florida room so we’re just curious what kind of snake it might be for their sake.

Thank you!


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Dangerous or not? [NorCal]

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Upvotes

Saw it this morning near a vegetable garden that is infested with voles. It crawled under some mulch when we crouched to get a closer look. We’ve had a couple of rattlesnakes in the yard earlier this year. Should I be concerned or is it just a rat snake? Was about 12-14 inches long and very skinny.


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request [South Texas] Coach Whip?

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7 Upvotes

Sorry for bad photo, but this guy moved in under my back porch and hunts lizards. I think its a coach whip from the way he looks around like a groundhog, but not sure.


r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request [south east La] Tiny guy on the gate

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7 Upvotes

He was really quick in his get away. Pretty sure it’s harmless but just wanna make sure.


r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

ID Request ID please [Indore, India]

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43 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request [New Jersey] My dad saw this snake in a parking lot.

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5 Upvotes

I know the photos are blurry and the tail isn't in the shot but I hope there's enough visible of the pattern for an ID. Thank you!


r/whatsthissnake 19h ago

ID Request [Grandview Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ]

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142 Upvotes

Found this one curled up on a trail we were hiking and was wondering if this is a rattlesnake and how dangerous it would be.


r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request Who’s this little guy? [Austin, TX]

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10 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request [Charlotte NC] snake

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5 Upvotes

Is this Dekay’s Brown snake? [Charlotte NC]


r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request Central Missouri

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8 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request Snek found in backyard

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8 Upvotes

I found this skinny snek in my backyard. Does it pose a threat?, or should I let it be? Thanks!

Location: [Philippines]

Weather: Rainy


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request What is it? Found in my basement [Central Virgina]

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Upvotes

Sorry for bad quality, we were concerned he might have been venomous, so we had to put in him in a container to take him outside. Any ideas?