Genus · Homalopsidae
Myanophis
The genus Myanophis contains a single species. It is not considered dangerous to humans.
About mud snakes
Myanophis is a rare Southeast Asian mud snake known from a single described species in the rear-fanged family Homalopsidae.
Myanophis is a small genus in the family Homalopsidae, the Indo-Australian mud snakes and water snakes. The family groups roughly 50 to 60 mostly aquatic and semi-aquatic species that live in fresh water, brackish estuaries, mangroves, mud flats, and rice paddies across South and Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Myanophis is one of the more obscure members, represented in our database by a single species and described from the lowlands of Myanmar, which gives the genus its name. Because so few specimens are known, much of what can be said about it rests on the well-studied biology of the family as a whole rather than on detailed observations of this one snake.
Like other homalopsids, members of this genus are built for life in and around water. The family is recognized by eyes and nostrils set high on the head, nostrils that can close with valves to keep out water and mud, and smooth or weakly keeled scales over a stout body. These are not snakes most people will encounter, and they are easy to confuse with other small aquatic snakes in the same wetlands, so confident identification of a single specimen in the field is difficult and best left to a herpetologist working from locality and scale detail.
Homalopsids are rear-fanged and mildly venomous, with enlarged grooved teeth at the back of the upper jaw and a Duvernoy's gland that aids in subduing the fish, frogs, and crustaceans that make up their diet. Most are harmless to people and many give live birth rather than laying eggs. Even so, the venom and natural history of Myanophis specifically are not well documented, so the honest position is to treat any wild snake as potentially capable of a bite and not to handle it. If a bite occurs, do not attempt field treatment; seek medical care promptly and contact US Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or your local emergency services.
Myanophis belongs to the Homalopsidae family (Mud & water snakes). Aquatic, mud-dwelling snakes with upward-facing eyes and nostrils. Stout, often drab snakes with upturned nostrils, found in or near muddy water.
Danger: Rear-fanged with mild venom; not considered dangerous to humans.
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.