It's not often you go looking for a snake in Malaysia and find exactly what you're looking for, but that's exactly what happened here.

I found this rare snake whilst clambering up the slippery boulders strewn about an adjacent mountain stream, accessed by the New (or 'Down') Road.

The stream was located in sub-montane forest, the habitat which this snake inhabits.

The snake itself was only 23cm, a sub-adult specimen as the record size for this snake was a around 60cm.

This species is distinguished from the similar Amphiesma inas by the white stripe starting from the post oculars, while A. inas has the white stripe along the 'lips'.

The snake, when sighted, was lying dormant on a rock with it's head a few centimetres from the rushing water. There was no time for in-situ shots as I had read this snake was extremely light sensitive, so I went straight for the grab.

There was a lot of Larut Torrent Frogs (Amolops larutensis) and their tadpoles about the stream where the Amphiesma was found.