Japanese keelback
The Japanese keelback, sometimes called the ringed snake or water snake, is a species of colubrid snake, which is endemic to Asia. It was first described in 1826 by Heinrich Boie as Tropidonotus vibakari.
Geographic range
It is found in northeastern China, Japan, Korea, and Russia.Description
It is a small snake, growing to a maximum total length of, with a tail long.Dorsally it is olive or reddish brown, with small blackish spots. Some specimens may have a dark olive or blackish vertebral stripe. The upper labials are yellow, with black sutures. On each side of the nape of the neck there is a yellow dark-edged diagonal streak, these two streaks converging posteriorly. Ventrally it is yellow, with a series of brown dots or short lines at the outer ends of the ventral scales.
Dorsal scales strongly keeled, arranged in 19 rows at midbody. Ventrals 127–151; anal plate divided; subcaudals divided 59–79.