Erpeton

Erpeton is a single-species genus in the family Homalopsidae, the Indo-Australian mud and water snakes. Its one member, Erpeton tentaculatum, the tentacled snake, sits apart from every other snake by a single feature: two short, fleshy, scale-covered appendages projecting from the front of the snout. No other snake has anything like them. They are sensory organs that detect movement in the water, helping the snake aim strikes at fish in near-total darkness or murky conditions. Within Homalopsidae, a family of mostly rear-fanged, aquatic and semi-aquatic snakes of Southeast Asia and northern Australia, Erpeton is the most specialized and the most fully committed to an underwater existence.

The tentacled snake ranges across mainland Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and southern Laos. It lives in slow or still freshwater: rice paddies, ponds, lakes, canals, and muddy lowland streams, and it tolerates somewhat brackish water as well. Recognizing it is straightforward when the snout is visible, since the paired tentacles are unmistakable. The body is heavy for the snake's length, rough-scaled, and usually tan to grayish brown with darker stripes or blotches that blend into aquatic vegetation and mud. Adults are modest in size, roughly in the range of two to three feet, and the snake is almost helpless on land, where it can barely move with coordination.

Erpeton is rear-fanged, meaning it has enlarged grooved teeth at the back of the jaw and a mild venom used to subdue the small fish it eats. That venom is adapted to fish, not people, and the species is not considered dangerous to humans, but no wild snake should be handled casually. The tentacled snake is an ambush hunter that holds a rigid J-shaped pose and uses water-movement cues, sometimes startling prey into swimming straight toward its mouth, an unusually precise feeding strategy. It is fully aquatic, gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs, and can stay submerged for long periods. If anyone is bitten by an unidentified snake and symptoms develop, seek emergency care and in the US contact Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or local emergency services.