Reptile & Amphibian Forums

just curious, a lot of people use the water moccasin to describe a cottonmouth (akistrodon piscivorous). what is the correct name, i thought heard that water moccasin can be used to describe any type of water snake.

Im not sure which one is the proper name, but they are one in the same. Usualy a snake is called what it lookes like, or what it does. Copperhead: self explanitory if youve ever seen one, they have a copper colored head. Diamondback: descriptive of its pattern. The cottonmouth gets its name no doubt from its defense display. It coils up in a tight S pattern, flattens out to apear as big as possible, tilts its head back and gapes its mouth wide open, showing a very cotton white oral interior. Very impressive, beautiful, and a snake to respect. There pattern looks like alot of non venomous water snakes, especialy the juviniles, so the most unique characteristic about the herp was used to name it. I beleive water moccasin is a slang term, but not sure. But they are one in the same. Skinner

From the Petersons Field Guide Series: Reptiles and Amphibians, eastern/central North America. Roger Conant and Joseph Collins.
Please see the description of the Genus Agkistrodon on page 397 of the third edition of this field book.
As Conant and Collins describe the Agkistrodon . . .
The name "moccasin" has been applied to many snakes. It is misleading and should be avoided. At one time the copperheads were called the "highland moccasins" and the cottonmouths were called the "water moccasins".
Ignorant and uninformed persons apply the name moccasin as a name for non-venomous water snakes.
So let's correctly call the venomous snake a cottonmouth, because of the white lining of the mouth that is seen, when the snake does an open mouth threat display.

Cottonmouth Snakes in Texas

Actually, it refers to regional dialect. There are many animals that have multiple names (Bull snake/Gopher snake, Javelina/Collared Pecary, etc.). So it may very well depend on what part of the animal's range you are from. Using the Latin is the best (and prefered) way to avoid confusion.

Last summer, I met this guy in northern Missouri who had this shovel in the bed of his pickup that he claimed he had used to kill over a hundred water moccasins. These were obviously water snakes (Nerodia spp.), as piscivorous leucostoma doesn't have a range that extends much out of the bootheel. This just goes to show that vernacular names can be rather uncredible in regards to snake identification.
creep