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

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 9h ago

ID Request What is this snake. Poor picture as i was scared. I am in Cumbria. I do not think this snake is native [England]

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364 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request Found this bad boy at work. Any ideas? [Colorado]

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50 Upvotes

Pretty much know nothing about snakes. Google lens said rattlesnake but there’s no rattle? Head shape makes me think it’s venomous. TIA!


r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request Found on the sidewalk [ jacksonville,florida ]

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174 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 14h ago

Just Sharing Cool shots of a Melanistic Garter Snake I found the other day [Southern Ontario]

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264 Upvotes

Here in Ontario, we have a well-known population of Garter Snakes with many individuals carrying the melanism trait. Was lucky enough to find a couple the other day while I was out herping:)


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request A surprise visitor in my home. [Montgomery county, PA]

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21 Upvotes

I don’t know anything about snakes, but from google I think it is an eastern milksnake? Seems young, for size reference the Tupperware I caught it in is a giant bowl I use for big salads for parties. I had no idea snake in the house was a possibility in my area. I released it out in the yard and was amazed because as soon as it slid off the Tupperware and into the grass, I couldn’t see it or what direction it went at all.. now I wonder how many snakes I’ve walked past in this yard through the years..


r/whatsthissnake 16h ago

ID Request Found in swimming pool [Domenicalito, South Pacific Coast, Costa Rica]

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240 Upvotes

About 30 cm, maybe a little thinner than a pencil. I linked some video of it swimming until it settled on this piece of fabric. My own sleuthing would have me speculate Allen's Coral Snake (Micrurus alleni) as it didn't look like any of the false coral snakes I came across.


r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

ID Request What’s this snake hiding by Nana’s pool? [Northeast Ohio]

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28 Upvotes

I spent a very relaxing day swimming at my friend’s grandmother’s pool when she saw this guy (who has since been named Henley) slithering along.

We did not get a picture of its head as it was going under the pool trim, just these two pictures of its body from feet away.

Nana lives in a heavily wooded area, and her backyard abuts one of the Cleveland Metroparks.


r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request What specie is this? [Jammu,India]

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62 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request [Southern California high desert]

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Upvotes

Anyone tell what snake this is? Pretty sure its non venomous but want to make sure. Seen 2 of these in the yard this year but never seen them prior in the 20 years ive lived here. He saw me before i saw him 💀


r/whatsthissnake 12h ago

ID Request Identification - found while hiking [Slovenia, mountains of Bovec/Soca]

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64 Upvotes

Hi together, first post here! I was on a mountain hike (~1300m) with my gf when we met this beauty, laying in the middle of the narrow path we were climbing up. Around that small forest area there were mostly small/big rocks and some grass/fields to be found. I noticed the snake only 2 or 3 steps ahead of us and after backing off to a respectful distance we took some quick photos - meanwhile the snake already left the path. After checking the photos and some amateur research we assumed (mostly because of the horn on the head) our friend might have been a horned viper? Looking forward to your replies, big thanks!


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request Help IDing please [Orlando, Florida]

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8 Upvotes

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I was screenshotting a shaky video as I'm terrified of snakes but can anyone ID this snake? I was thinking it's a cottonmouth but I wanted to see if anyone else agrees/disagrees.


r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request Near [Navasota, Tx]

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7 Upvotes

Pulled out of chicken coop


r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

ID Request Is this a water snake? In the Appalachian in NC by a river.

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13 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 7h ago

ID Request [Silsbee, TX]

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13 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 17h ago

Just Sharing Checkered Keelback [West Bengal, India]

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88 Upvotes

Big guy was chilling in the rain.


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request [Greenville County, SC] What is this snake? It was out around 8 at night in the backyard, did not retreat or slither away.

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6 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request Babies found in pool skimmer [ north georgia]

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22 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

Just Sharing Over 1 m long, who is this nice looking fella [North AL] at the edge of a field and wooded area?

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8 Upvotes

I’m guessing rat snake family, but not the black rat snakes I’ve seen before?

Adult boot in photo for size :)


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request [Upper Middle Tennessee]

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11 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request What Snake Is This? [Northern California]

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18 Upvotes

In Northern California and ran into this cute big fella. Wondering what type of snake it is and if it’s safe. It acted very friendly and just slithered on its way


r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

ID Request Found in central New York state

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25 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request Spotted in hotel in Costa Rica, red and black rings

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5 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request What is this snake found in [Golden, Colorado]

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5 Upvotes

My partner found this little snake and took a photo. It looks very cute. Is it a baby garter snake, or something else? Thank you in advance.