Hypsiscopus matannensis

Boulenger's water snake, also called the Matana water snake, is a homalopsid named for its Lake Matano type locality in southeast Sulawesi. Its 24 cm male holotype was collected by Paul and Fritz Sarasin. Twenty-one scale rows at midbody, one postocular scale and a divided internasal scale distinguish the species from the similar Hypsiscopus plumbeus (Reptile Database; Wikipedia general account).

The species is live-bearing rather than egg-laying. Although named from Lake Matano, a second specimen was reported from Raha on Muna Island and recent work maps its known southeast-Sulawesi distribution. The opened catalogue did not provide direct diet, habitat-depth, activity, adult-size range, litter size or gestation data. It also records the older combination Enhydris matannensis, explaining why earlier literature files it under another genus (Reptile Database).