Thamnophis saurita septentrionalis
Rossman, 1963
Montgomery Co., Indiana. April 8, 1996.
This snake is similar to the Eastern Ribbon Snake, but is smaller with a shorter tail, and has darker background colors and the middorsal stripe is sometimes muddied with brown. This specimen was photographed in situ, among a pile of broken shale along a creek bank. It was a bright, sunny day in the low fifties, but rocks in the open sun are quite a bit warmer than the ambient air temperature.
Crappy film shots, so I’ve been going back to the same location for over twenty years now, but I’ve yet to turn up another ribbon snake.
The corrected specific epithet is ‘saurita‘ – for more details, see the Etymology section of the Reptile Database entry for Thamnophis saurita here.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
