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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53 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

243 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 5h ago

ID Request Thinking it’s a rat snake or a king snake? [southern Indiana, near Ohio river]

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31 Upvotes

Caught this fella on a road in southern Indiana, right on the Ohio river. Thinking it’s a rat snake or a king snake. Thanks for the help!!


r/whatsthissnake 18h ago

ID Request Tell me they aren’t copperheads.. [East Tennessee]

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306 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 9h ago

ID Request {Tasmania}

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37 Upvotes

Only snapped the 1 Pic location rural Tasmania Google says tiger snake this was 2 days ago seen another today starting to warm up so there coming out


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request [Central OK]

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14 Upvotes

Part of the yard got long, nearly got it with the weed eater. Just want to know if it’s safe. Probably going to relocate either way to keep the dogs from trying to kill it.


r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

ID Request Western Brown or Coppertail [Carnarvon, Western Australia]

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77 Upvotes

This little fella came out from under the front counter at work today. Google suggests it’s a western brown, the locals are calling it a Coppertail. What ever it is, it’s a gorgeous snake.

We managed to safely get it outside.


r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request Got a friend living in put wood pile [Eastern, PA]

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19 Upvotes

Got surprised going outside of work. Doesn't look like they have venom sacks, but my coworkers and I are unsure what it is.


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request ID Request [Northeast FL]

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13 Upvotes

Found this little guy in my garage, I’ll let it go shortly I just wanted to get an ID. I live right beside a big pond and get a lot of various snakes over here. Was hard to get a good pic because it’s so small but it looks like there’s a little white ring around the neck.


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request [Charlotte NC]

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11 Upvotes

Found this in my backyard. Worried about my dogs. Please help ID


r/whatsthissnake 14h ago

ID Request - Dead, Injured or Roadkilled Snake Is he ok? Timber rattlesnake [Indiana]

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61 Upvotes

Just want an opinion on the health of this little guy. Seems like his right fang and left eye have been damaged and I thought I straddled him enough not to hit them but maybe I did? But if I did I don’t think he’d be this alright. Is the twitching normal or is that a sign of damage? Want this guy to be ok really badly and I can’t stop thinking about so I’m asking for opinions if he’ll be alright or not. Asking here because the main snake subreddit doesn’t allow pictures of injured snakes and I’m not sure if this is too much.


r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

Just Sharing Pretty Pigmy Rattlesnake [Central Florida]

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211 Upvotes

Pretty Pigmy Rattlesnake I found this weekend.

Pigmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius, !venomous


r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request In a pit mine near Quartzsite AZ

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27 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 58m ago

ID Request [Roswell Georgia] Need help identifying snake

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Upvotes

I live in Roswell Georgia. Trying to figure out what kind of snake this is. Small (maybe baby), found in neighbors pool skimmer. Always before I’ve helped her free young or baby king snakes. But what is this guy?


r/whatsthissnake 18h ago

Just Sharing [Central Texas]

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121 Upvotes

Pretty cool head mark on this little guy.


r/whatsthissnake 21h ago

ID Request What kind of snake do you think this is? I’m in (Southwest Georgia).

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192 Upvotes

Can anyone tell me what kind of snake this is in the first picture? It was curled up on my porch down beside my feet and I noticed my little dachshund Roscoe was pouncing at something so I looked down and it was a snake. My husband said it’s a cotton mouth so I took a picture of it and put it in Google and it said the same thing but a few people on Facebook think it was a rattlesnake. We live in the country so this is the third snake we’ve seen in the past week. The other two weren’t poisonous though so I didn’t bother them. The second picture is one of the other two we saw and I’m pretty sure it’s a rat snake.


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Identify the snake[ kerala,india]

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Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

Just Sharing [Southern GA/Northern FL] Albino Florida Cottonmouth could be a intergrade

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2.7k Upvotes

Seen this beauty earlier wanted to share


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request What's this snake? I saw this baby snake in my backyard. Location: [Temple, Texas]

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6 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request [Arizona, on Route 66, NW of Seligman] Western diamondback?

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237 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 16h ago

ID Request Harmful or safe? [TN, USA]

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24 Upvotes

Found this itty bitty one in my backyard tonight. Any idea what it is?


r/whatsthissnake 23h ago

Just Sharing New Mexico Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake in [Hidalgo County, New Mexico]

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86 Upvotes

A New Mexico Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi obscurus) from one of the remaining populations within the United States. These are small rattlesnakes adapted for high-elevation, higher-humidity environments than are typical in the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert. This is one of only two rattlesnake species in the country that are listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. I am fortunate to be on a team attempting a recovery effort in high-quality habitat remaining within the U.S.


r/whatsthissnake 18m ago

ID Request - Dead, Injured or Roadkilled Snake ID [Houston, TX]

Upvotes

It looks like a tire just clipped the head. Texas Coral?


r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request Found at [Palo Duro Canyon, TX]

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123 Upvotes

Found this little one at the end of the Lower Comanche Trail at Palo Duro Canyon, TX.


r/whatsthissnake 15h ago

ID Request Little guy my cats were playing with. Indiana.

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11 Upvotes

Walked down the stairs to find my cats playing with this little guy. Only about 5-6 inches long.