Ptyas mucosa

黃頜蛇科、Colubrinae 亞科。
Colubridae, subfamily Colubrinae

360 cm

廣泛分布在台灣(南部較多)、金門、馬祖海拔一千公尺以下區域。

阿富汗，伊朗，土庫曼斯坦，前蘇聯，尼泊爾，巴基斯坦，孟加拉國，印度（馬哈拉施特拉邦，卡納塔克邦，安達曼群島），斯里蘭卡，南 中國（浙江，湖北，江西，安徽，福建，廣東，廣西，海南，雲南，西藏，貴州，四川），台灣，緬甸，柬埔寨，寮國，西 馬來西亞，泰國，越南，印度尼西亞（蘇門答臘，爪哇）。

Large snake; total length up to 360 cm. There are 14-19 (21) rows of smooth or feebly keeled scales. Head is oval to slightly triangular; body is slender to moderately heavy and tail is long. Eye is large; iris is dark brown to brown black dappled with dirty yellow to tan and pupil is large, round jet black, surrounded by ill-defined ring of dirty yellow. Nostril is prominent. The supraocular forms laterally protruding shelf over eye. There are 2-5 loreals at each side. Tongue is large, black to blue-black, with often dark gray fork tips. Upper head is uniform light to dark brown; the labials are distinct due to lines of black pigment on posterior margin of each scale. Upper body and tail are light to dark brown while some scales have dark brown or black margins and are arranged in various designs; the majority tends to form irregular ill-defined narrow bands around posterior body and tail. Juveniles are olive yellow dorsally, and bear transverse rows of white spots across body anteriorly. Ventral head is cream to light gray; some scales possess indistinct black posterior margins. Ventral body is cream to light gray, with pigmented areas on posterior margins that are progressively larger and darker in posterior part of body. Anal scale is divided and subcaudals are paired, distinctly marked dark brown to black.

南蛇行動快速且容易激動。受到威脅時，牠會抬高頭部、撐大頸部並且發出連續的嘶嘶聲。當被人捕獲時，牠會用力的纏繞並且試圖螫咬捕捉者。人工飼養的環境下，一但受到挑釁仍然有可能出現這樣的行為，常常因為試圖攻擊經過的物體而造成吻端受傷。一些爬蟲學家 (Harry Greene是其中之一) 認為無論是膨脹頸部或是發出嘶嘶聲，皆有可能是模仿眼鏡王蛇 (King Cobra - Ophiophagus hannah)。

南蛇、華鼠蛇、華錦蛇、水南蛇。