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Help ID'ing snake

CMLReptiles

CMLReptiles

Hooah!
Ok, I found this snake dead on the road by my house this afternoon, and after looking at a picture of every snake known to reside in the state of FL, can't figure out wtf it is! So ok, here are some details...

It's dark colored, lots of earth tones with some red thrown in.
The back is loosely banded, no red.
The sides, starting way up on the back, are blotched/chained with bits of black, and brown on a redish background.
The belly is yellowish and completely free of pattern, as are the sides of the tail from the cloaca back.
The snout is pointed, with the jaws sticking out slightly.
The snakes was appx 1 ft long, but was heavy-bodied...would easily handle a large rat pup (think comparably sized bp)

Upon seeing it, I went from immediately thinking florida king snake, to southern hognose, to "wtf mate?" :shrugs: It has a lot of kingsnake characteristics, but the head shape and clear belly throw it off. Also, the banded back to chained/blotched sides literally had a "fine line" between them...I have never seen a pattern variation so clearly defines on an animal...at no point down the length of it's body did the length of the bands increase/decrease...they simply ended at the same spot the entire length of the snake....

Any ideas?
 
Did it have a pointy sharp nose? Either of those hoggies, you'd know for sure.

Southern: no difference between belly and tail pattern

Eastern: definite light patternless tail underside

Both come in all different shades of black/rad/brown with patterning.

Nanci

(But if Chris can't tell what it was, no one is going to...)
 
The only thing I can think of, is the Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake.
There are 2 known color phases, the red phase having a yellow ventral.
Perhaps there is an intergrade between the color phases?
Adults measure between 14-28".
Here's a pic of a juvenile red phase from Alan Tennant's book.
 
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Does it help to know that I live in pine flats that are highly elevated (well, for fl anyway). I have a pic I was able to go back and get...maybe it'll help. And btw, by "pointy" nose I didn't mean tipped like a hoggie...more like a cornsnake.
 
Here is the picture I took...WARNING! GRAPHIC! The snake was run over, so obviously this isn't going to be pretty! Also, the colors have faded a little overnight and the reds are gone...a slight blue down has become more pronounced now
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DSCN3157.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure I know what you've got there. That type of "snake" is called a legless lizard. Anybody else agree. I don't have great focus when I zoom in on it, but by the shape of the head and the fact that I can see holes where the ears are very unclearly...I'd have to say glass lizard or something along those lines.
 
Sweet! That's what I thought, and too bad it wasn't alive. I've never seen a legless in the wild. Great find! :)
 
Glass Lizard! I had two for a while, Russell and Russell Jr. (My ex did road construction for a while and would dig them up in the winter) Best lizard you'll never see! If you see them at all, it's about an inch of their head out of the substrate, laying in wait for their prey. I named them Russell as a play on words of that joke, What do you call a guy with no arms and no legs that likes to roll in the leaves??

They are the most common DOR herp I see.

Nanci
 
that makes sense then...would explain why I couldn't ID it as well...though I always thought those things were a lot smaller...?
 
The two I had, Russell was about 12" and pretty fat, and Russell Jr. was the diameter of a pencil and about 6" long. I released them when I got Addy.

Nanci
 
CMLReptiles said:
that makes sense then...would explain why I couldn't ID it as well...though I always thought those things were a lot smaller...?
Click to expand...

Most of the ones I've seen have been in the 12-16" range, but they can get much larger.
Tennant says 28", but a Georgia website boasts 43"!
 
mbdorfer said:
Most of the ones I've seen have been in the 12-16" range, but they can get much larger.
Tennant says 28", but a Georgia website boasts 43"!
Click to expand...

Wow...guess I need to get some books on the local lizard and amphibian populations huh...thanks for the help guys, that was driving me absolutely up the f'in wall trying to figure out what it was! I musta looked at pics of every fl snake 5 times! lol
 
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