Hydrablabes

Hydrablabes is a small genus in the family Colubridae, the largest and most varied family of snakes in the world. It holds only a couple of recognized species, the best known being the Olive Small-eyed Snake (Hydrablabes periops). These are modest, ground-and-water dwelling snakes of Southeast Asia, tied to the wet forests, stream margins, and damp leaf litter of Borneo and nearby parts of the Greater Sunda region. Like many obscure Asian colubrids, they sit on the natricine and allied branches of the colubrid tree, the broad grouping that also contains keelbacks and other water-associated snakes, and they are far more often passed over than seen.

In general terms, members of Hydrablabes are small to medium snakes with smooth, even scales, a slender body, and the small eyes that give the group its common name. The reduced eye size is a typical signal of a snake that spends much of its life low to the ground, in dim forest understory, or partly in water, where keen daylight vision matters less than it does for a fast diurnal hunter. Coloration tends toward plain olive, brown, or grayish tones that blend with mud, wet leaves, and stream banks. Because the genus is poorly studied, the surest way to identify one is by region and habitat combined with a herpetologist's examination of scale counts, not by a single field mark.

These are not snakes of medical concern to people. They are non-venomous to humans, with no apparatus capable of delivering a dangerous bite, and they are reclusive rather than aggressive. Their ecology follows the pattern of small semi-aquatic forest colubrids: they hunt small soft-bodied prey near water, such as worms, amphibians, and other small animals, and they reproduce by laying eggs as is typical for most colubrids. The honest summary is that Hydrablabes is a genus defined more by what we still do not know than by dramatic traits. As with any wild snake, the right approach is to observe and leave it undisturbed, and if anyone is ever bitten by a snake they cannot confidently identify, treat it as a medical situation and contact emergency services or US Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.