Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's one for you guys to ponder. I found this on a recent trip. It's not hard, but I'm wondering what kind of specifics you can give me on this species, LIKE...where would you imagine this snake to come from? Enjoy!

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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

Assuming it's a domestic, I'll guess a dark-phase Northern Water, N. s. sipedon. Locale most likely Great Lakes region (Lake Erie area, perhaps? ) . Too dark and too much belly pattern to be the Lake Erie ssp. (N. s. insularum).

Could be the variant subspecies from the Outer Banks area of NC, N. s. williamengelsi, although I wouldn't expect to see that much red in the ventral markings.

Or, I could be completely off. Nice snake, though, and good question!
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MichaelB

I'm going to guess fasciata
Other pics? This species interbreeds with sipedon, but yours is very dark, nearly patternless. Is it from northern Florida?

I've seen some distinctive patterns in Florida fasciata - some seem to have bands that blend into the surrounding colors. Very nice.

Since it seems like only two were "willing" to take a guess, and good guesses they were, I'll just spill it. The snake pictured is a WC Nerodia fasciata (ssp?) from eastern NC. What I founds strange with these snakes around here is that they seem to resemble a lot of bandeds that I've seen come from Florida, which is the exact reason I posted the picture in the first place. My little test to see who would "catch on" to some of the resembling features. We also have bandeds around here that have nearly patternless bellies, except for a blotch here and there. I'll enclose a picture of the latter to show example of the difference range of which I speak. Thanks for taking a stab at it guys!

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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

and I just only know realized that I spelled Nerodia with an extra "d" in my original post! Sorry...lol
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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com