White-headed snake

About the White-headed snake

The Colombian longtail snake (Enuliophis sclateri), also known commonly as the sock-headed snake and the white-headed snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to the humid forests of Central America and northern South America.

The species was first described by George Albert Boulenger in 1894 under the name Leptocalamus sciateri. The species was later placed in Enulius, and remained there until 1993, when James R. McCranie and Jaime Villa designated the species as the sole member of the new genus Enuliophis, which as of 2026 remains monotypic.

The name Enuliophis is derived from the Greek words hen (one), oule (scar or mark) and ophis (snake), and is allusion to the genus Enulius, the species of which, according to James R. McCranie, Enuliophis sciateri shares a resemblance with.

The specific name, sclateri, is in honor of British zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater, who donated the holotype to the British Museum (Natural History), where Boulenger worked. E. sclateri can be found in the humid forests of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, at elevations ranging from sea level... Wikipedia →