Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What's the specific differences between the northerns and southerns? I thought I could just tell by color differences, but lately I've been finding northerns in maryland (northern maryland, 5 mins from PA) that I would swear were southerns based on their color, but I'm too far north for those.
thanks!
-Will

I'm not an expert. The two subspecies regularly overlap in the wild. I consider southerns to be animals w/out dots in the lighter shade on the patterning. I believe the difference to be more pattern related than colour related. Here is an example of each:

Wrong forum? Arent copperheads Crotalids? I thought Crotalids were pit vipers, all pit vipers, like eyelash and lanceheads, not just rattlers.

this isn't the wrong forum, crotalidae are pit vipers, it just so happens that rattle snakes are the most popular around here, and i guess people see all the crotalus and think that crotalidae is only rattle snakes. what i was getting at before though, was more of a difference in colors, i know all of that, but is there a different scale count anywhere, or any distinct things on the head that can tell for sure which it is... so that way i'm not just saying, "well, it looks like a ...."
thanks!
will

The genus Agkistrodon belongs to the Crotalidae family not the Viperidae family - my mistake - you learn something everyday, huh?

Or you could use the degree of constriction of the middorsal row on each band. Northerns are about 3-4.5 and southerns are usually 1.5-3. But of course that will not always be reliable.

creep

Or you could use the degree of contriction of band width mid dorsally. Southerns are usually 1.5-3 scales while northerns are about 3-4, i think. Of course, this will not always be reliable. Check out Conant and Gloyd's Complex. Averages are listed with species accounts.

creep

Sorry about the double post. My computer is doing things it is not supposed to.