Northern water snake The belly also varies in color. It can be white, yellow, or gray. Usually it also has reddish or black crescents. The northern water snake is nonvenomous and harmless to humans, but superficially resembles the venomous cottonmouth and is often killed unnecessarily as a result of this mistaken identity. The two can be easily distinguished by morphological traits: the water snake has a longer, more slender body and a flattened head the same width as the neck, round pupils, and no heat-sensing pits. The cottonmouth has a fatter body, a wedge-shaped head with prominent venom glands that are wider than
Brown-banded water snake nape, and are arranged in 19 rows. Ventrals are 102-130 in number, the anal scale is divided, and the 61-94 subcaudals are paired and keeled. "H. angulatus" lives in fresh and brackish water, where it feeds on fish and possibly also freshwater eels and frogs. "H. angulatus" has been reported to be "facultatively ovoviviparous". Brown-banded water snake The brown-banded water snake ("Helicops angulatus") is a species of aquatic snake found in tropical South America and Trinidad and Tobago. The brown-banded water snake grows to a maximum total length (including tail) of 78 cm (31 inches). Dorsally, it is olive or