a genus of snakes of the family Colubridae. The body is very slender, the head narrow, the snout elongated and pointed, and the tail long and prehensile. The coloring of the upper side of the body is green, bronze, crimson, or grayish brown. There are five species, which are distributed from Arizona to Argentina. Oxybelis live predominantly on trees and shrubs and are diurnal. They feed on small vertebrates, principally lizards, which they kill with poison, but they are not dangerous to humans. The snakes reproduce by means of eggs.
The best-known species is the green whip snake (O. fulgidus), which measures to 1.5 m long. It is bright green, with two lemon yellow stripes on the underside.