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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55 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 6h ago

ID Request [North central Florida]

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123 Upvotes

Was inside for a minute and ran outside to the dogs going crazy barking walked over and saw this guy. I didn’t see any bites on my dogs but just to make sure if anyone knows what this snake is? I’m getting a lot of different feedback on Google. Thanks


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

Just Sharing Rattlesnake successfully re-homed [Riverside County, CA]

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36 Upvotes

I posted yesterday that this Southern Pacific Rattlesnake needed relocating. I caught it in a trash can. I couldn’t get in contact with any local relocators so I decided to do it myself. I found a spot at a local ecological reserve only about 3/4 mile away. Look how well he blends in!


r/whatsthissnake 18h ago

ID Request At the time, I thought it was just a water snake [southeast Texas]

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348 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request Snake ID please - only have a video no photo unfortunately [Southeast Thailand]

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79 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 19h ago

ID Request What kind of sea snake is this? [Philippines]

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210 Upvotes

Hi all! Can anyone help me ID this sea snake? Seen off Samal Island, in the Davao Gulf, at around 15 meters. Thanks!


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request What snake is this [Austria]

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25 Upvotes

Found in austria, was pretty small


r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request [Louisiana] Found this little guy about an hour north of New Orleans

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Upvotes

What type of snake is this? He’s definitely a baby, he was about 6 inches total.


r/whatsthissnake 7h ago

ID Request Rat Snake? (Smoky Mountains TN)

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18 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

ID Request [West Central Florida]

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15 Upvotes

Lens says it is a garter snake but it's 4 feet long.


r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

ID Request Is this what I think it is? [Coastal Virginia]

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133 Upvotes

Discovered this not so little guy on our porch tonight.. I'm thinking its a copperhead but not exactly sure?

Going to be on guard regardless now as we have a cat and an autistic child that loves to play in the front and backyard.


r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request Nope [Raleigh NC]

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25 Upvotes

Not what we expected to find inside the building this morning…copperhead? Concern is where brothers and sisters and mom might be…


r/whatsthissnake 9h ago

ID Request Young Black Racer? [Central Florida)

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14 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request Made a new friend [East Tennessee]

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308 Upvotes

I believe this is just a green vine snake? But not entirely sure. Dope little guy though.


r/whatsthissnake 19m ago

ID Request Who is this snek?

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Upvotes

Found in my yard. Near Akron Ohio. Water squirter for scale. Maybe 6 inches long.


r/whatsthissnake 23m ago

ID Request - Shed Skin What species is this skin shed from? [central MA]

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Upvotes

What species is this skin shed from? [central MA]. We do have plenty of common Garter Snakes in our yard and garden.


r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request Eastern hognose or something else? [South central PA]

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3 Upvotes

My coworkers seem to think I am the keeper of all snake knowledge, but this one stumped me. I thought eastern hognose, but it is just so unique. Found in the mountains of south central PA, Fulton County ish.


r/whatsthissnake 8h ago

ID Request What snake is this? [Valenzuela, Philippines]

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6 Upvotes

Captured in the backyard / garden area. Thanks in advance!


r/whatsthissnake 19h ago

Just Sharing Southern Pacific Rattlesnake needs relocating! [Riverside County, CA]

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48 Upvotes

Hi, does anyone know any resources I can use to find someone in my area who can safely relocate a rattlesnake? I got it to slither into a trash bin by pushing It along with a shovel. I don’t know if animal control would kill it so I’m hoping to find someone to relocate it to a safe area.


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request Mississauga? [South West Michigan]

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2 Upvotes


r/whatsthissnake 19h ago

ID Request Identify [Mesa Arizona]

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45 Upvotes

Baby. Rattlesnake??


r/whatsthissnake 6h ago

ID Request [East Texas] Is this two snakes or one with two colors and what are they?

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4 Upvotes

My dog pointed this guy(s) out to me, I think its two but then i tried to film it and there was only one long skinny black one, but my photo from 30 seconds before makes it look like there are two snakes? They were in-between the hardware cloth and chicken wire, I drove behind it to check but I couldn't find them again. Im gonna try and upload video in the comments


r/whatsthissnake 1d ago

ID Request What is this snake? [DL, India]

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256 Upvotes

Fren saying its wolf snake, i think its krait


r/whatsthissnake 11m ago

ID Request [Northeast Florida] any idea? Found camouflaged in the crosswalk

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Upvotes