Long-nosed Whipsnake

The long-nosed whipsnake, also called the Sri Lankan green vine snake, is a slender green tree snake endemic to Sri Lanka. It was long treated as the common green vine snake found across India and Southeast Asia, until a 2020 study split those populations into several species and restricted Ahaetulla nasuta to the Sri Lankan population. The species name nasuta is Latin for 'of the nose', for its elongated snout (Wikipedia, general species account).

The genus name comes from the Sinhala ahaetulla, 'eye plucker', from the belief that these snakes pluck out the eyes of humans, first reported by the Portuguese traveller João Ribeiro in 1685. Nationally Least Concern (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).