Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata
(Storer 1839)
St. Louis Co., Missouri. May 1978.
Similar to the brown snake in habitat preference, but the redbelly doesn’t seem to have pervaded the urban environment in the same way as their cousins. I don’t find them as often as I find brownies. They can be very beautiful, with a belly of red, yellowish orange, or even coral pink. The pair pictured below are southern Illinois specimens, found within a foot of each other, and obligingly showing a couple of the color forms common to occipitomaculata. The bottom photo is a southern Missouri specimen.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
