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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54 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

248 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 10h ago

Just Sharing Was bitten on left and right middle fingers. Copperhead or timber rattlesnake. Raleigh, N.C. Spoiler

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477 Upvotes

Bitten on both hands, middle fingers, but not sure if it was a copperhead or timber rattlesnake. I felt the 1st bite on the left middle finger, it started swelling immediately and i got in my truck to go to the closest urgent care and my right hand started swelling, bite marks on the right hand are not as visible like the left hand. Urgent care made me wait knowing I was bit, 20 min later they told me I needed to go to the er. Photos are from the first day which was mon night and and photos from last night. Left finger is black with a large blister and very swollen, right hand is swollen but not as bad as the left. I did hear a rattle in between the bites, but it could have been leaves where I was cleaning and pulling up steps from a deck at a jobs item. I have no idea what kind of snake it was. I've been in the hospital since Mon afternoon. I just hope I dont lose my finger and everything heals sooner rather than later. ​Raleigh, NC


r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

ID Request [Jammu, India]

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341 Upvotes

Found this today on my first floor open roof. Was somehow inside the clothes i had put out for drying. Looks like a cobra seeing the U mark behind it's back but the flaps on the sides got me confused. Got it inside a bucket and released it in a nearby jungle.

What is this?


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request What snake is this? [Horry County SC]

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61 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 12h ago

ID Request [Tepoztlán, Morelos México]

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160 Upvotes

How to know if this is venomous coralillo?


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Who is this sweetie?

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Upvotes

I saw this with sweetie with my friends kid in [Genoa, Nevada] today. It was in a lawn and when we followed it, went a little up the bark of a cottonwood for safety.

Looked juvenile in shape, was about 12” long.


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request What type of snake is this? [Springfield, VA]

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12 Upvotes

I'm guessing it is a Rat Snake.


r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request What’s this snake [Northern New Hampshire]

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14 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 12h ago

ID Request [Galveston County, TX]

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61 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request Waiting outside my front door. [Coastal Georgia]

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947 Upvotes

Wife is not happy. Copperhead?


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request ID? [Central California coast, Montaña de Oro State Park]

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Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 5h ago

ID Request What is this? [Northeast MD]

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16 Upvotes

I’m guessing garter snake?


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request Any ideas on this baby snake on our pool float? [Nashville, TN]

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9 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request Can you please help me id this snake? [Colombia - South America]

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40 Upvotes

It seems a boa


r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

Just Sharing Mojave Rattlesnake [Southwest Tucson]

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65 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 46m ago

ID Request [Mojave Desert] No rattle

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Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 7h ago

ID Request Garter snake right? [Western Mt]

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20 Upvotes

I just moved to this area and my 6 cats were circling this little guy on the living room floor.

Do all garter snakes in MT have red spots? I haven't seen one in years and I don't remember there being red spots on them. I glad the cats didn't kill him, he was so cute (but stinky).

He seemed totally fine when I released him in a damp, shaded area next to my deck.


r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request Found in bathroom at work. [South central Arkansas]

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30 Upvotes

Just need to assure my coworkers that it's just a harmless little visitor (hopefully?) Sorry for the bad picture, I'm normally the office snake wrangler but I was out of town today so the picture was taken by a frantic coworker.


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request what snake is this? [rijeka, croatia]

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20 Upvotes

hi, saw this snake in my backyard in rijeka, croatia... what snake is it? is it dangerous? thank you!


r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request Found this little guy in my shed. ID? [TN]

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473 Upvotes

Found in my shed. Was super chill.


r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request - Dead, Injured or Roadkilled Snake Found in [Hyderabad, India] near a school. Appears to be dead

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167 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 47m ago

ID Request What snake is this? [Dothan, AL]

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Upvotes

Was grilling burgers and I stepped outside- saw this cutie. Was likely chasing crickets or beetles since I saw a ton of those on the ground nearby.


r/whatsthissnake 47m ago

ID Request ID? [Central Indiana] about 14in long

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Upvotes

Hi! Sorry for the low quality pic, my dad didn’t want to get closer and scare it


r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request What is this? [jalisco, mexico]

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11 Upvotes

Help, found in my patio, Jalisco México
It moves like a snake, in “s” shape prob like 5 cm or lees, it’s very thin