[1] Psammophis are diurnal and prey on lizards and rodents which they actively hunt.

The head is elongated and distinct from the neck, with an angular canthus rostralis.

The body is elongated and cylindrical with smooth dorsal scales in 15 or 17 rows at midbody, with apical pits.

The ventral scales are rounded or obtusely angulate laterally, and the tail is long with the subcaudals in two rows.

[1] One fossil species, Psammophis odysseus, is known to have inhabited the Iberian Peninsula during the Miocene, indicating that the genus managed to successfully colonize mainland Europe in the wake of the Messinian salinity crisis, only to be extirpated from there shortly afterwards.