Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Nerodia rhombifer
Diamondback Water Snake

Mingo Swamp, Missouri. May 1983

Mingo Swamp in southeastern Missouri is a very good place to find water snakes.  I saw a number of Diamondbacks there, almost always basking on half-submerged logs.  In later years I encountered them  in south Texas as they basked in the willows overhanging the Rio Grande.  On a canoe trip in February 2001 I was able to snap off a few poor shots of a Rio Grande rhombifer - it's tough to focus in a bobbing canoe!

The top right picture is my first Diamondback, and was taken in Mingo Swamp; the bottom right picture along the Rio Grande.  The Rio Grande specimens I have observed show very faint patterns dorsally.  Below is a young rhombifer from the Cheyenne Bottoms in central Kansas.