What is it that makes these rather drab little snakes so special?  There's a question with several answers, the first of which is diet.  Queen Snakes almost exclusively eat crayfish, but not just any old crayfish - they only eat softshelled crayfish, the ones that have just shed their hard exoskeleton as part of the growth process.  As you can imagine, this limits the number of crayfish a Queen Snake eats in the course of a year.  In order to survive, Queen Snakes need places where crayfish are plentiful, and easy to find, and a shallow, rocky creek is one of those places.  It's not the only place you can find Queen Snakes - in other parts of their range, they are also encountered in swamps, lakes and ditches - other places where crayfish abound.  It is a dietary niche not readily exploited by other species of snakes within their range.

Because of their narrow diet, the fate of the Queen Snake is bound to that of the crayfish.  Falling in the category of an 'indicator species', crayfish thrive where good water quality is maintained.  If humans change things, if the water is polluted or if the body of water is changed so that it no longer supports crayfish, then the Queen Snake is dragged into oblivion right along with their prey.  Their niche of speciality in diet becomes their downfall, and makes Queen Snakes, in turn, an indicator species as well.  The Indiana rivers and creeks providing homes for Queen snakes are relatively healthy, and as long as they stay that way the Queen Snake will remain here.

The Queen Snake, Regina septemvittata, is one of four species of 'crayfish snakes' in the Regina genus.  They are closely allied to other natricine water snakes.  The Queen Snake has a wide range in the eastern United States, while its midwestern counterpart, Graham's Crayfish Snake, ranges west of the Mississippi and into Illinois.  Along the southern and eastern coastlines are the Glossy and Striped Crayfish Snakes, occuring from eastern Texas through North Carolina.  Like the Queen Snake, the Graham's Crayfish Snake specializes on softshelled crayfish, while the Glossy and Striped Crayfish Snakes consume either hard or softshelled crayfish.

On subsequent trips we were to find many more Queen Snakes, most of them under flat rocks near the water.  One exception was a large gravid female observed basking on a log underneath one of Indiana's old covered bridges.