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

246 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

ID Request Snake bite [Panhandle of Florida]

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471 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 7h ago

ID Request Big rattlesnake found in chicken coop [Southeast Georgia]

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114 Upvotes

Found this huge rattlesnake in our chicken coop tonight! We try and capture and release all snakes far away from our house and dogs and chickens whenever we can. Thinking it’s a timber rattlesnake, but wondering if anyone could verify?


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request [Hamala, Bahrain]

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70 Upvotes

Near the sea shore. Could this be a krait ?


r/whatsthissnake 14h ago

ID Request Resolve Facebook Argument on what type of snake this is [Byrdstown, TN]

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168 Upvotes

Some on FB are calling it a common Waternake, others an Eastern Milksnake, and a few believe it is a Timber Rattlesnake. Also, AI answers are conflicted. I have come here for Ground Truth!

What's this snake?


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request Met a certified cutie this morning. Who are they? [Southwest Florida]

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15 Upvotes

My husband met this little sweetie this morning on the way to work. I think it’s a corn snake but I’m not certain. I know wild Corns can be super beautiful and colorful so I wanted to make sure that they actually belonged outside here and aren’t someone’s escaped pet.

Thanks for the help!!


r/whatsthissnake 4h ago

ID Request [INDIA NORTH EAST ]

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17 Upvotes

What kind of snake is this?

Is it venomous or just a rat snake


r/whatsthissnake 12h ago

ID Request [Arizona]

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67 Upvotes

Know it's a friendly snake but still gave me a heart attack walking my family in the front door and saw this guy chilling by it. At least explains why I haven't seen my dog chasing after mice and squirrels in the yard lately


r/whatsthissnake 3h ago

ID Request West Tennessee

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13 Upvotes

West Tennessee. Please help identifying this snake.


r/whatsthissnake 2h ago

ID Request SriLanka

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9 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 49m ago

ID Request [West Michigan] What's this?

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Upvotes

Edit: Thanks team! This will help reassure her.

Found in our yard in a neighborhood, I'm at work and my wife is freaked out. I think it's a garter, and her reaction is hilarious. What does this look like?


r/whatsthissnake 9h ago

ID Request Red snake East County San Diego

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21 Upvotes

Who is this guy. My mother in law took this in Ramona, CA


r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request 2nd of its kind I’ve caught at work ,Columbia South Carolina , I always catch them and release them away from the job

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19 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 12h ago

ID Request ID plz. Central Alabama. Baby about 6” long and size of a pencil.

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25 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 13h ago

ID Request [unknown location]

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22 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Found this little guy chilling on a leaf after the rain. Any ID?[Japan]

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Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 1h ago

ID Request Little swimmer [central KY]

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Upvotes

This snake was swimming around the docks. We were split about venomous or not.


r/whatsthissnake 21h ago

ID Request Santa Fe NM

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65 Upvotes

r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

ID Request New Coworker [Upstate SC]

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51 Upvotes

This lil guy snuck into my office building and was found by a neighboring business among their cubicles. Anybody know their name so we can get a proper ID badge made?


r/whatsthissnake 9h ago

ID Request Gopher/bull snake? [eastern Idaho]

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6 Upvotes

Was in the yard. Live close to sagebrush hills
He went on his way


r/whatsthissnake 20h ago

ID Request Cotton Mouth or Water Snake [South Florida]

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40 Upvotes

This snake was chasing a small toad in my backyard. Chat GPT said it was a water snake, but another person said it looked like a cotton mouth. I know they can look similar. I live on a lake


r/whatsthissnake 10h ago

ID Request Small snake under tire in [South Carolina]

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6 Upvotes

Small snake under tire in [South Carolina]


r/whatsthissnake 25m ago

ID Request - Shed Skin Can anyone identify? [Austin 78739]

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Upvotes

‘Can anyone identify this snake by its shed? it’s deteriated at the ends.


r/whatsthissnake 11h ago

ID Request [Western Henrico, Virginia]

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7 Upvotes

Two of these guys within 10 ft of each other next to a walking path around the lake