Reptilia · Squamata
Hypsiscopus murphyiBernstein, Voris, Stuart, Phimmachak, Seateun, Sivongxay, Neang, Karns, Andrews, Osterhage, Phipps, Ruane, 2022
Murphy’s Mud Snake
Photograph by luluchouette, CC BY, via iNaturalist
An active by day or night, meat-eating snake from the Oriental region, reaching 356 mm nose to tail.
Once published as Hypsiscopus plumbea — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Homalopsidae › Hypsiscopus
- Grows to
- 355.9mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives
- Semi-aquatic
Longer than only 11% of all species in Homalopsidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 128 to 1,400 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
35 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
2 pairs of these figures disagree
Body mass (adult female, mean) is given as 57.6, and Body mass (greatest) as 15.6 — but an average female cannot outweigh the heaviest animal recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Length snout to vent (greatest recorded) is given as 560, and Length nose to tail (greatest recorded) as 355.9 — but snout to vent is part of the animal's total length, not more than it. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2009
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Green
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- Yes
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 120mm4.75 in
- Length snout to vent · greatest recordeddisputed
- 560mm22 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recordeddisputed
- 355.9mm14 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputeddisputed
- 15.59g0.55 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasureddisputed
- 57.6g2 oz
560 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Hamidy et al. 2023 (12 males, 202–560 mm SVL, 10 females 200–555 mm SVL - probably with juveniles), Cox et al. 2012 (max TL 713 in females, 473 mm in males, neonates 80-160 mm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1200m
- Range size
- 2,044,702km²
"feeds on fishes, frogs, and sometimes crustaceans" (Bernstein et al. 2022)
Wang et al. 2023
"The species is nocturnal or cathemeral (Murphy, 2007)." (Bernstein et al. 2022)
"primarily a freshwater homalopsid and typically found in sluggish streams, ponds, rice fields, and marshlands at elevations from sea level up to at least 1200 m (Mell, 1922; Deuve, 1970; Murphy, 2007). However, the species can be found some distance from the water, such as underneath logs, especially during the dry season (Saint Girons, 1972)." (Bernstein et al. 2022)
0-1200 (Bernstein et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 10eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–18eggs
- Mean clutch
- 9eggs
ovoviviparous (Bernstein et al. 2022)
"ovoviviparous, containing 2–18 young (Murphy, 2007) averages of nine young per litter have been reported (Cox, 1991). Two examined specimens of H. murphyi (ROM 30818 and ROM 30933) in this study contained seven and nine ova, respectively." Bernstein et al. 2022
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Bernstein, Voris, Stuart, Phimmachak, Seateun, Sivongxay, Neang, Karns, Andrews, Osterhage, Phipps, Ruane
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2022
- Type locality
- Laos
Keeping one
14 in × 7 in × 10.5 in(36 × 18 × 27 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 0.75.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 14 in (355.9 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 0.75 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Murphy’s Mud Snake. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 16 g, the heaviest recorded for Murphy’s Mud Snake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Homalopsidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Hypsiscopus murphyi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hypsiscopus-murphyi
@misc{hypsiscopus_murphyi_2026,
title = {Hypsiscopus murphyi},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/hypsiscopus-murphyi}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.