Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is some of the pictures for the snakes that I collected while road cruising the last two nights. Last nights trip included two gravid Miami Phase females along with another South East Lee County Boy and a Male Yelloe Rat (which I reallt needed for my female to breed with the season.
I did not take pics of the gravid corns because I did not want to disturb them.... enjoy the pics

24" long males Scarlet King snake


Male Yellow Rat

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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Male South East Lee County

Female South East Lee County w/ blind eye

Female Miami Phase Corn

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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

It's always nice to get out in the field isn't it. I was out for an hour or so looking for a female bull (boy, that sounds odd) Saturday & came across this nice sized female hog. Neat little critters. It was to dry for much else though.

Also, I've got a quick question for you. Are you sure that little Scarlet king isn't actually a Scarlet snake? From your pic it looks as though the banding doesn't quite reach the ventrals. Just my opinion but a coccinea would be a way cool find.

Anyway, happy herping & I wish I could find a pic of the corn I found down there a few years back. Very similar to the ones you found. I found him in Spanish Wells (Bonita Beach Rd. & Hwy 41 roughly). Neat little guys.

Lee

but your scarlet king not a scarlet king (Lampropeltis triangulum), it's a scarlet snake (Cemaphora Coccinea). Similar looking snakes, and often confused. Scarlet snakes are evil snake-egg eaters. Below is a pic of a scarlet king I found in 2003, in Glades County. In my experience, they are pretty common, and I find them usually when I am not looking for them.

Nice corn snakes. I had a couple from near Naples that smoked any other wild caught corn you've seen. They were like Okeetee and Miami corns all in one.

I guess I missed the boat on this one LOL. 33 years down here and I have never even stumbled across a Scarlet King snake!! My hunt will continue LOL.
thanks
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Well, I guess I am a bit better with my boas then I am with my Kings (or should I say my scarlet Snakes!)
I have collected a scarlet snake in the wild before but I had no idea that they got this big! this sucker is 2' long which is why I was pretty sure it was a large scarlet King LOL.
Oh well my 33years long hunt for a wild Scarlet King goes on LOL.
Thanks to everyone who sent the e-mails or posts about the misidentifacation. 17 emails about and not a nasty on in the group, truly a great group of people.. I think I will keep this guy and feed him some of the infertile corn snake eggs and see how he does.
Thanks again
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Jim,
...Of course we were not gonna give you a hard time about that Scarlet snake. I was going to ask you what color it's belly is? They are really tough to get eating in captivity. I tried several times with them and finally got one of them to drink egg white from a chicken egg. I would keep it without water for several days to make sure it got thirsty and then offer egg white in a small bowl and it would drink that. AFAIK Scarlet Snakes have never been successfully captive bred. I did hatch 5 eggs from a WC gravid one once. I will keep my eyes open for a Scarlet King for you next time I am down in Florida. I know where to catch a bunch of them here in GA but they are protected. The weather systems that came through the south got lots of snakes moving in this area. I have seen several DOR snakes and live Black Racers, Copperheads, Watersnakes and Garters out and moving. I got some PICs of a medium large Coachwhip that was out hunting around some Gopher Tortoise burrows. He did not like me messing with him and showed typical pissed off Coachwhip behaviour and attacked when I blocked his escape. He finally went down a Tortoise burrow to get away from me. I was hoping for an Indigo sighting as I have seen their shed skins around the same Tortoise colony.
Jeff

>>Well, I guess I am a bit better with my boas then I am with my Kings (or should I say my scarlet Snakes!)
>>I have collected a scarlet snake in the wild before but I had no idea that they got this big! this sucker is 2' long which is why I was pretty sure it was a large scarlet King LOL.
>>Oh well my 33years long hunt for a wild Scarlet King goes on LOL.
>>Thanks to everyone who sent the e-mails or posts about the misidentifacation. 17 emails about and not a nasty on in the group, truly a great group of people.. I think I will keep this guy and feed him some of the infertile corn snake eggs and see how he does.
>>Thanks again
>>-----
>>Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
>>Hopkins Holesale Herps
>>Hopfam1@aol.com

This is the Eastern Coachwhip. These snakes get very big in central Florida and often have some pretty orangish hue on them. This one was here in GA and was a little less than 6 feet long and had very pale ivory colored body aft of the black neck.

We are making some progress here in our very backwards state. Until recently it seemed like herp enthusiasts were the only ones who knew or cared that Eastern Indigos are protected. I have recently seen this sign in a couple of state parks that have Indigo populations. Indigo Snakes are pretty rare here in GA and it would be futile for anyone to expend any effort expecting to poach one here. Please do not ask me where they do live here in GA.
Jeff
.

>>Jim,
>>...Of course we were not gonna give you a hard time about that Scarlet snake. I was going to ask you what color it's belly is? They are really tough to get eating in captivity. I tried several times with them and finally got one of them to drink egg white from a chicken egg. I would keep it without water for several days to make sure it got thirsty and then offer egg white in a small bowl and it would drink that. AFAIK Scarlet Snakes have never been successfully captive bred. I did hatch 5 eggs from a WC gravid one once. I will keep my eyes open for a Scarlet King for you next time I am down in Florida. I know where to catch a bunch of them here in GA but they are protected. The weather systems that came through the south got

np

it is still very pretty and boy does it have one stinkin' cute little face! lol I don't know much about Kings or Corns, but I would just love it if I lived in a place where I saw them regularly! When I was little, we used to catch Garters and the occasional Hognose and Milk Snake but I haven't seen any of those around here in years and years!

Thanks for posting!!!
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Amanda Burke
Email
Burke Reptiles Website

are the ones with the rattles on their tails LOL. I just love it when they wag their tails to welcome me.

thanks for sharing the pictures! I love that miami corn!
Wish there was more stuff to hunt for out here in the desert besides rattlesnake! lol