Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the rarest N. American venomous snake of all. I've only seen two in my entire life. Both looked alike. The yellow bands are almost absent with little black in the red. Overall all the snake has a strange faded appearance. Neddless to say obtaining this little gem made my day!...Tom Crutchfield

Damn! Thats a rare Micrurus f. crutchfieldi!!!!!!!!!!!

Randal

Congratulations, Tom! (Lucky dawg!)

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Is that the Barbour’s Coral Snake "micrurus fulvius barbouri" described in my favorite old snake book, Ditmars’ “The Reptiles of North America”? In that old book (mine is from 1936!) it says “The form is based on a series of nine specimens”. It doesn’t say anything about the reduced yellow, but says “Distinguished from the typical Micrurus fulvius fulvius by the complete or relative reduction of black pigment on the dorsal scales of the red interspaces”. I don’t know of anything else really being written about these. Do you have any information on the collection of this one? I think you might be right on the rarity of these, if it is truly a subspecies and not just a variation. I guess if this variation is only known from a handful of specimens, all from the Keys or extreme south Florida, it is truly a very rare subspecies.The first Coral I ever saw was crossing Card Sound Road (I’m sure you know where that is) that’s about as extreme south Florida as you get, and it was very normal looking, so I always wondered about that subspecies.

I'm not sure if their still a recognized subspecies but they sure look very different. This speciman was collected on Key Largo. I once saw another from Big Pine and it looked like this one. I assumed at the time it was abberrant because of the paucity of yellow and the faded appearance. Now I guess thats what all Keys snakes look like. TC

Sub or not, that's an awesome snake.

Wow! I have never seen one of those North American Corals before,very interesting!!! Cool score!!! Kevin Fisher

The small keys coral was presented with a live newborn rough green and brown snake three days ago. As of yesterday, nada to report.

This morning I noticed the green on its back and dead, perhaps envenomated. The brown was not easy to locate anyway and could have been or still be in the mulch?

The green was placed under a leave where the key's coral was resting. An hour later the green was still in view and untouched. Two hours later it was gone, obviosly consumed.

Dan

It is quite bizarre looking to see that bright wide yellow ring behind the head and see every other one missing! Definitely a pattern thing and not just a lack of yellow. I hope we continue to see updates with this snake. Maybe I should buy it...