Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Regina septemvittata septemvittata
Queen Snake

Montgomery Co., Indiana.
April 8th, 1996

Rick Milas took me to a gravel-bottomed creek one chilly day in April.  "There are Queen Snakes here," he said.  The low temperature led me to doubt, yet eventually, we did find one under a flat stone a dozen feet or so from the water.  It was covered with mud, having emerged recently from its underground hibernaculum.  This snake has a very small niche - it only eats crayfish, and of crayfish, it only eats those that have just shed their shells and are still soft-bodied.  Perilous is the place of the Queen Snake in this world - fill a creek with toxins or silt, and the crayfish disappear, taking the Queen Snakes with them.

The bottom picture is of a nice looking juvenile from the same area.

For more on Queen Snakes, visit my Search For The Queen journal page..