[2] Sir Francis Day described Ophiocephalus diplogramma in 1865 based on one juvenile specimen (42 mm in length) collected near the mouth of the Cochin River in the port city of Cochin (southwestern India) and called it Malabar snakehead.

[5] The close similarity, rarity of adult specimens in museum collections, and because no taxonomist had studied this snakehead since its description, resulted in the subsequent acceptance of the synonymy by ichthyologists.

[2] C. diplogramma shows multiple colour phases during its life history, which makes local fishers believe that they are different species.

The Malabar snakehead is endemic to the southern Western Ghats of peninsular India.

The Malabar snakehead differs from all other species in the genus by its high number of lateral line scales (103–105 vs. 36–91).