139 articles
Ophiophagus
Ophiophagus, the king cobra genus, is a genus of large Asian elapid venomous snakes; long monotypic with Ophiophagus hannah, split in 2024 into four species: hannah, bungarus, kaalinga, and salvatana.
Pantherophis obsoletus
Pantherophis obsoletus, the western ratsnake (formerly black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta), is a colubrid snake west of the Mississippi River, one of four species in the P. obsoletus complex, IUCN least concern.
Philodryas
Philodryas (South American green racers, bush racers) is a Wagler 1830 genus of rear-fanged Dipsadidae snakes endemic to South America, with roughly 17 species, unstable taxonomy, and SVMP-rich venom; P. olfersii bites cause serious envenomation.
Pit viper
Pit viper (Crotalinae), venomous viperid snakes with heat-sensing loreal pits between eye and nostril; over 190 species, TRPA1-based infrared detection, rattlesnakes and copperheads among members.
Pituophis
Pituophis is a genus of large, non-venomous constrictor snakes ranging from southwestern Canada to central Guatemala, known as pine snakes, gopher snakes, and bullsnakes, which hiss and bellow in defense.
Polemon
Polemon (African snake-eaters) is a genus of fossorial, ophiophagous venomous snakes in the subfamily Aparallactinae, family Lamprophiidae, from Central and West Africa, with 14 to 16 species including P. barthii and P. ater.
Prosymna
Prosymna, the African shovel-snouted snakes, is a genus of small burrowing or rock-dwelling sub-Saharan savanna snakes, the sole genus of Prosymnidae in some classifications, feeding mainly on reptile eggs with blade-like rear teeth and a rigid fused skull.
Protobothrops
Protobothrops is a monophyletic genus of about 14 Asian lance-headed pit viper species, split from Trimeresurus, originating in southwestern China, medically important for hemorrhagic habu venoms.
Psammophis
Psammophis (sand snakes), type genus of Psammophiidae: 35 diurnal, rear-fanged African and Asian snake species; taxonomically complex, with Dromophis synonymized and the sibilans complex split.
Pseudechis
Pseudechis, Australian black snakes, including the mulga snake or king brown (Pseudechis australis), is an elapid snake genus from Australia and southern New Guinea with PLA2-rich anticoagulant venoms, except the procoagulant red-bellied black snake.
Pseudonaja
Pseudonaja, brown snakes, is a genus of nine highly venomous Australian elapid snake species including the eastern brown snake (P. textilis), Australia's leading cause of snakebite deaths, with prothrombin-activator venom causing rapid coagulopathy.
Ptyas
Ptyas (Asian rat snakes), Fitzinger 1843, a colubrid snake genus of Colubrinae with 14 species including P. mucosa, the Oriental ratsnake; large, non-venomous, oviparous Asian snakes.
Puff adder
Puff adder (Bitis arietans), a large African viper ranging from Senegal to South Africa and Arabia; ambush predator with hemotoxic, cytotoxic venom and a leading cause of African snakebite envenoming.
Python (genus)
Python (genus), Daudin 1803, family Pythonidae; ten species of large constrictor snakes including the Burmese python, Indian rock python, and ball python, native to Africa and Asia and heavily traded for skins.
Python bivittatus
Python bivittatus, the Burmese python (formerly P. molurus bivittatus), a large Asian python listed IUCN Vulnerable, invasive in the Florida Everglades via the pet trade.
Python molurus
Python molurus, the Indian rock python, is a large non-venomous Asian constrictor snake; the Burmese python P. bivittatus was split from it in 2009. CITES Appendix I, ESA endangered, up to 6.4 m.
Pythonidae
Pythonidae, the true pythons (formerly Pythoninae), is an Old World family of non-venomous egg-laying constrictor snakes from Africa, Asia, New Guinea, and Australia, with 40 species, lengths up to 10 m, and Eocene European fossils indicating a Laurasian origin.
Rat snake
Rat snake, Pantherophis (New World) and Elaphe (Old World), non-venomous constricting colubrid snakes that eat rodents; includes the corn snake P. guttatus and the black, gray, western, and yellow rat snake species complex.
Rattlesnake
Rattlesnake, any of about 42 venomous pit viper species in genera Crotalus and Sistrurus, from southern Canada to Argentina; keratin tail rattle, heat pits, live birth, Miocene-Pliocene radiation from western Mexican highlands.
Red-bellied black snake
The red-bellied black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) is a venomous elapid snake of eastern Australia, glossy black above with red to pink lower sides, usually found near streams and swamps.
Rena
Rena (Baird & Girard, 1853) is a North American genus of threadsnakes (Leptotyphlopidae), revalidated from Leptotyphlops in 2009, with about 10-11 burrowing, ant- and termite-eating species from the southwestern US and Mexico.
Reticulated python
Reticulated python, Malayopython reticulatus (formerly Python reticulatus), ular sawa batik: the longest snake species, reaching 8-10 m, native from India to the Philippines and Indonesia, CITES Appendix II, IUCN Least Concern.
Rhabdophis
Rhabdophis, Asian keelback snakes (34 species, East and South Asia), known for nuchal glands storing bufadienolide toxins sequestered from toads or fireflies; some species are both venomous and poisonous.
Ring-necked snake
Ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus), a small North American rear-fanged snake from southeastern Canada to northern Mexico; dark back, bright orange-red venter, tail-coil startle display, mild Duvernoy's gland venom, 2–10 eggs, IUCN least concern.
Russell's viper
Russell's viper (Daboia russelii, formerly Vipera russelii) is a large venomous true viper of South Asia, named after Patrick Russell. A 'big four' snake causing India's highest snakebite mortality, with regionally variable venom and IUCN Least Concern status.
Sea snake
Sea snake: venomous marine elapids, including true sea snakes (Hydrophiini) and sea kraits (Laticaudinae), over 70 Indo-Pacific species with paddle tails, valvular nostrils, elongated lungs, and potent neurotoxic, myotoxic venom.
Sibon
Sibon is a genus of neotropical snail-eating colubrid snakes (Dipsadinae, tribe Dipsadini), type species S. nebulatus, ranging from southern Mexico to South America, feeding on snails and slugs with specialized jaw mechanics.
Sidewinding
Sidewinding is a mode of snake locomotion in which the animal moves sideways across loose sand or mud, best known in desert vipers like the sidewinder rattlesnake.
Sistrurus
Sistrurus, the massasauga and pygmy rattlesnake genus, is the small sister genus of Crotalus with nine large head plates, three North American species, and a simpler venom of 22 protein families.
Sistrurus catenatus
Sistrurus catenatus, the Eastern Massasauga, is a small venomous pit viper of the North American Great Lakes region, threatened in the US (2016) and Canada (COSEWIC 2025) by habitat loss, road mortality, and persecution.