The species name mycterizans comes from the Greek "mucterizo", meaning "I turn up the nose," in reference to the shape of the snout of the snake.

These slow moving snakes often appear like vines amongst foliage and are hard to detect.

The anterior part of the body can expand when threatened exposing the dark scales.

It is often confused with the oriental whipsnake (Ahaetulla prasina) but the former does not occur in disturbed areas or parks or gardens, especially in its distributional range of Singapore.

The former is also smaller (up to 1 m snout to vent length) as compared to the oriental whipsnake which can grow up to 2 m.[6] Very little is known about the ecology and natural history of this species.