Parrot snake: meet the colorful snake that lives in the trees of Brazil

Researchers from Mapinguari , the Laboratory of Biogeography and Natural History of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Institute of Biosciences (Inbio) at UFMS (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul), discovered the existence of a new species of parrot snake in the Brazilian Cerrado, Leptophis mystacinus.

It all started years ago when Professor Nelson Rufino, from the UFMS Institute of Biosciences , noticed a stripe after the eyes and a different color pattern in snakes of the Leptophis genus found in Tocantins.

At that time, no further investigation was carried out, which led Nelson and his colleague Daniel Fernandes to provisionally assign these specimens to another species until a more complete study of their variation could be carried out. Further studies carried out in the following years on individuals with the striped pattern of Leptophis revealed the existence of an undescribed species, apparently endemic to the Cerrado.

“In 2023, while I was a visiting professor in the United States, I spoke with Professor Nelson, who mentioned a different animal in the Cerrado that he had found in his thesis, but still without much evidence to describe it,” says Diego Santana, professor at Inbio and coordinator of Mapinguari . Now, in 2025, the mysterious species was described as Leptophis mystacinus .

The bilateral black stripe is a characteristic that differentiates this species from other parrot snakes. “It has this black stripe that crosses its eyes and extends along its body, which is not the case in other species,” says Santana. This snake is not venomous and is completely harmless to humans.

The discovery reinforces the need to preserve the Cerrado, which is currently the most devastated Brazilian biome . The destruction of the Cerrado grew 43% in 2023 when compared to 2022. Data covering the devastation of the biome throughout 2024 has not yet been released, but it is worth remembering that this year the Cerrado suffered from large-scale fires .