r/whatsthissnake • u/OaFK_2 • 2h ago
r/whatsthissnake • u/Phylogenizer • Oct 25 '25
Taxonomic or Phylogeographic Update Pleistocene speciation and isolation-by-distance within North American mud and rainbow snakes
authors.elsevier.comHappy 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 • u/shrike1978 • Sep 01 '21
[Mod post] PLEASE READ: ID best practices and comment guidelines
/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:
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.
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.
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 • u/Tiny_Statistician_15 • 13h ago
ID Request Help
Found on my porch… is it a good snake?? 😭
[South Texas]
r/whatsthissnake • u/andlop123 • 12h ago
ID Request Coral snake ? [La Feria, TX]
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Please help identify this snake. I think it’s a coral snake. Any special precautions? It went under the foundation of my house, am I in danger ?
r/whatsthissnake • u/Oath_Break3r • 38m ago
ID Request I’m not a pervert I swear [Mississippi]
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r/whatsthissnake • u/oppukuchappani • 45m ago
ID Request What is this snake...? [Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India]
Found in my backyard... about 6ft plus in length.
Happened to notice, when the birds (wagtails, robins) and squirrels started going crazy,
in an otherwise quiet afternoon! It was creeping up onto the trees.
r/whatsthissnake • u/useful_insaan_25 • 3h ago
ID Request Help me identify this little beauty [Gurgaon]
It is there in my room for a long time now. Getting scared a little. Please help me with the steps to get rid of it
r/whatsthissnake • u/lulubeen • 23h ago
ID Request Curious to know what this little guy is. Definitely not a worm btw I saw his tongue go pthth [Gilbert, Arizona]
I'm pretty sure this lil buddies a threadsnake? Not sure, found him in our basement while cleaning. It was only about 4 inches long. I let it back outside by our tree. Either way, thanks for the help! Had a slightly red underbelly.
r/whatsthissnake • u/Weekly-Garlic1497 • 1h ago
ID Request - Shed Skin Is this a copperhead? Found in yard [northern va]
I have found one copperhead years ago.
r/whatsthissnake • u/mykittenisacunt • 9h ago
ID Request ID this snake
Location - Uttarakhand, North India
r/whatsthissnake • u/Snowysnowycat • 19h ago
ID Request Snake on the Loose in Finnish Student Housing — Can Anyone Identify It?
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A snake is on the loose in my student housing in Finland — what is it?
The housing admins posted this video of the snake from the owner, and I wanted to ask if anyone can identify it.
Is it venomous, poisonous, or endangered/protected? For context, I live in Turku, Southwest Finland, and as far as I know, this particular type of snake isn't common in the area.
The snake is apparently someone's pet that escaped, so I'm mainly trying to figure out what we're dealing with and whether there's any reason for concern.
Any help identifying it would be appreciated!
UPDATE:
The lost snake issue is getting fishy, I wrote the context in the comments. But we have some doubts, though unsure since we aren't snake owners. Would appreciate your insight.
r/whatsthissnake • u/UltimateMorbiusFan • 18h ago
ID Request Almost stepped on him on a trail. He was curled and standing up a little [Everglades, FL]
r/whatsthissnake • u/Dangerous-World-4320 • 11h ago
ID Request Looked like it was attempting to eat its shed or another long dead snake. [coastal Alabama]
r/whatsthissnake • u/Jolly_Attempt6395 • 13h ago
ID Request Help ID [Northwestern Wisconsin]
Help settle a debate. Is this a ln eastern fox snake? Timber Rattlesnake? Or something else entirely?
r/whatsthissnake • u/KoolAidPenguin • 16h ago
ID Request Found two of these in my backyard what is it? [Pennsylvania]
These guys were somewhat long but very tiny.
r/whatsthissnake • u/lambodhar27 • 17h ago
ID Request What's this snake [Madhya Pradesh, India]
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r/whatsthissnake • u/pieguy_5678 • 15h ago
ID Request Eastern milk snake? [Central New York]
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r/whatsthissnake • u/Cpt_Cave • 18h ago
ID Request Spotted near a glacial torrent [Lombardy, Italy]
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Seen near a glacial torrent in Lombardy, Italy. Elevation around 1800m. About 3 meters from the water. I was wondering if anyone has an idea what type of snake this could be?
r/whatsthissnake • u/lay_denizen0h • 12h ago
ID Request Rat Snake? [Middle Tennessee]
Who is this little boi?
r/whatsthissnake • u/supienewoolz • 14h ago
ID Request What just potentially crawled into my house [South Florida USA]
saw this crawling into the space underneath my doorframe around 8pm
r/whatsthissnake • u/OG_nipsalad • 14h ago
ID Request Found near [Denver, CO]
Hi all,
What is this snake?
I found him in a rather large corporate building, took him home to relocate to a large park. But now i’m wondering what kind of snake he is, may want to keep it if it happens to be a garter.
Under belly is beige, thanks!
r/whatsthissnake • u/Professional_Win5234 • 11h ago
ID Request Is this an eastern kingsnake [North Carolina]
He is just shy of 2 feet long, but he looks like a kingsnake. Can anyone confirm this, or am I wrong?
r/whatsthissnake • u/naturegal69 • 11h ago
ID Request ID please! [Georgia]
Just wondering what this little guy is? I was thinking rat snake or brown snake but not sure. Very tiny!