Taxonomy
The species was first described by George Shaw in Zoology of New Holland (1794), placing it in the genus Coluber. He believed the snake to be harmless to people. The accompanying illustration was attributed to James Sowerby, but is regarded as being produced from drawings by John White. The genus Pseudechis was created for it, though several subsequent species have been added. Snake expert Eric Worrell analyzed the skulls of the genus and found that of the red-bellied black snake to be the most divergent.
Read more about this topic: Red-bellied Black Snake