Genus · Colubridae
Enuliophis
The genus Enuliophis contains a single species. It is not considered dangerous to humans.
About white-headed snakes
A single small, secretive forest-floor snake from Central America known for its pale collar and burrowing habits.
Enuliophis is a monotypic genus, meaning it contains just one recognized species, Enuliophis sclateri, the white-headed snake. It belongs to the family Colubridae, the largest snake family, and sits within the New World group of leaf-litter and semi-fossorial colubrids that also includes its close relatives in the genus Enulius. These are small, slender, secretive snakes built for life in and under the forest floor rather than out in the open. The genus was split off from Enulius based on differences in anatomy, so you will sometimes see the species discussed under either name in older sources.
The species ranges through the lowland wet forests of Central America and into the Pacific lowlands of northwestern South America, roughly from Honduras and Nicaragua south through Costa Rica and Panama into Colombia and Ecuador. Typical habitat is humid tropical forest where the snake spends most of its time hidden in leaf litter, loose soil, and rotting logs. As a small, dark-bodied snake with a contrasting pale head or neck collar, it is easy to overlook and is most often found by people turning debris or during nighttime surveys. Adults are slender and modest in size, in the general range of common small colubrids rather than anything large.
Like the great majority of small leaf-litter colubrids, the white-headed snake is not considered dangerous to people. It is a non-venomous, harmless snake with no medically significant bite, and it relies on hiding and burrowing rather than defense. Even so, the general rule with any wild snake holds: identify from a distance, do not handle snakes you cannot confidently identify, and if anyone is bitten by a snake of uncertain identity, contact emergency services or US Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 rather than guessing. Ecologically, small fossorial colubrids of this type are predators of soft-bodied prey such as invertebrates and reptile eggs, are egg-laying, and live quiet, low-profile lives as part of the forest-floor food web.
Enuliophis belongs to the Colubridae family (Colubrids). The largest snake family, and the one most snakes you meet belong to. Typically round pupils, a head only slightly wider than the neck, and no heat-sensing facial pit or rattle. Scales may be smooth and glossy or keeled and matte depending on the species.
Danger: Almost all colubrids are harmless. A small number are rear-fanged with medically significant venom, the boomslang and the twig (vine) snakes of Africa being the dangerous exceptions. Most colubrids will flee or bluff rather than bite.
All species (1)
Keep learning
- What Is a Snake? Anatomy and the BasicsA clear overview of what makes a snake a snake: limbless body plan, anatomy, evolution from lizards, species diversity, and why they are ectothermic.
- How Snakes Move, Hunt, and EatHow snakes move without legs, hunt as ambushers or active foragers, kill by constriction or venom, and swallow prey wider than their head.
- What Do Snakes Eat?All snakes are carnivores. Learn what snakes eat, how diet changes with size and age, how often they feed, and how they hunt and swallow prey.
- Venomous vs Nonvenomous: How to Tell the DifferenceThe folk rules for telling venomous snakes apart, where each one fails, and why location-based identification beats guessing by sight.