Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i live on long island, caught pretty much every species on the island, even hognose snakes, but today someone showed me something real different. it was a baby snake, 4 to 5 inches long. it was a tannish grey dorsal, with a salmon colored stomach. what threw me off was the fact that unlike garter snakes and such, the neck was just as large as the body, the only difference in girth was the tail. its cool if no one can really help me, the discription isnt great, im just trying to get some ideas thrown up there

It sounds like you are describing a Nothern Red-bellied snake(Storeria occipitomaculata) pictured below, or an Eastern Worm Snake(Carphophis amoenus amoenus).

If it had large very glossy scales instead of keeled and rough like the ones pictured, and a stubby, pointed tail, it's a Worm Snake.

~Doug

Worm Snake link

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Also, if your snake was either of the above species then it wasn't a baby. Both species are relatively small compared to most others and yours could have even been an adult. Adult Red-bellied Snakes can get up to about 10 inches in NY. Wormsnakes are larger, I do now know if 8 inches is large enough to be sexually mature or not.

it looked like the pic posted, only a little lighter, so i gotta think it is that. im thinking it was smaller than 8 inchers now though.. proball closer to 6 at most.

That's probably it. The first thing I thought of upon reading the first post was Storeria. ~~Greg~~