I actually successfully bred this male South Florida mole king with a smaller female–both commercially obtained.
Dratted snake! How many times—how many years—how many pure thoughts—does it take to find a live one? I’ve tried over and over and over again— and then tried again–alone and with Jake. Sum total? Zero alive!

Other friends have found this elusive snake, and acquaintances have found even more. But my total–1, found years ago as road jerky over near Okeechobee City. And that doesn’t count in my book. So, other than a tale of failure, what is the story here?

Well, here it is in shortened format: After Price described this snake (Price, R.M. 1987. Disjunct occurrence of mole snakes in Peninsular Florida, and the description of a new subspecies of Lampropeltis calligaster. Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc. 22 (9): 148) the “lamprophiles of which I am not one, began flocking to South Florida (shades of L. alterna!) looking hard for the mole king.

Some succeeded, many (me included) failed. But I did continue to look occasionally, and did so throughout the described range of the subspecies. It was early on that I found the DOR and began to note that even though infrequently seen the snake was collected by others for the pet trade. So, wanting to actually see one in the wild, I began looking a little more frequently. I found garter snakes, water snakes and rat snakes galore, and even an occasional Florida king, but not a single mole king. I got so used to failure that when friends found one, I sulked. Yes, I sulked, and I’m not even fond of kingsnakes of any flavor. But I’m even less fond of perpetual failure.

So I stopped looking, and did so just in time, because the genetic wizards have just elevated it from subspecies status to a full species, and there’s no sense in wasting more time looking for a subspecies when I could be wasting it looking for a full species!

OK, Jake. No more procrastination. It’s time to find one of these durn things. South Florida, here we come!

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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! Isn’t this a gorgeous Southern Pacific Rattlesnake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Canes05 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world.

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Hopefully the gorgeous blues of this Dendrobates auratus uploaded by kingsnake.com user amazonreptile will brighten your day. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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You know it is going to be fun when you start out the day with an Eastern coachwhip in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jodscovry! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Such a lovely contrast against the blue, this Angolan Python takes the spotlight in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user EdCB ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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We might be biased, but we have always have a soft spot for kingsnakes, like this California mountain kingsnake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user EdzExotics ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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The longitudinally divided dorsal stripe of the juvenile Scott Bar salamander is easily seen here.
The Scott Bar salamander (Plethodon asupak) is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. The genus occurs primarily in the USA but a few species extend northward into southern Canada. The Scott Bar salamander is restricted to a very small range in the Scott River drainage in Siskiyou County, California, at altitudes between 2,300 and 4,300 ft. Described in 2005, it is one of the most recently recognized species in the genus.

About half of the Scott Bar salamanders 5 inch length is tail. Males seem marginally the smaller gender. Juveniles are often more brightly colored than the adults, having a well defined red dorsum that is divided lengthwise by an ill-defined brownish stripe. Old adults often lack even vestiges of red, being an overall white-flecked gray. The flecking is most profuse laterally and the ground color is darkest ventrally.

Within its preferred habitat of rocky montane, evergreen clad, slopes, this can, within its limited range, be an abundant species, and on foggy or dew-spangled nights a fair number may be seen foraging. In this behavior they are identical to many (if not most) of the more widespread woodland salamanders.
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! This Timber Rattlesnake in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user herpermike1 was found in a very populated area in Tennesee, and moved to a more safe location! Great Message! ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world.

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Diamond’s aren’t just a girl’s best friend, they are everyones! This stunning Diamond Python our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CincyGrady shows us why! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Here is something you don’t see every day! A field shot of a Guyana Kentropyx (Kentropyx borckiana) in Barbados for our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user davemangham is feeling SASSY! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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A whole lot of AWWWWS for this newborn Collared Lizard in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user the4thmonkey! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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After a weekend of relaxing, like the Water Dragon in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user arkherps , it’s time to get back to the grind! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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The 3 subspecies of swamp snakes are very similar in appearance, They are best determined by
ventral scale count and range.This is the North Florida swamp snake, Liodytes pygaea pygaea.
The North Florida swamp snake, a small but very pretty, predominantly aquatic taxon, has recently been reclassified by the nomenclatural clowns. Seminatrix, the very long-standing genus name applied to the 3 subspecies of swamp snake, is no longer valid. These snakes are now grouped with the crayfish snakes in the genus Liodytes. with the North Florida subspecies being the nominate form, Liodytes p. pygaea.

Despite their seldom being seen, the swamp snakes are among the most common of our southeastern serpents. Most of the few seen are found during their rather infrequent terrestrial ramblings while they are crossing expanses of open ground such as trails, roads, or paths.

But if you happen to be in an area where masses of aquatic vegetation (especially the invasive water hyacinths) are being dredged, and if you have a chance to sort through the root systems of those plants, you may find these shiny red-orange bellied black snakes present in the dozens.

These little natricines feed on a wide variety of aquatic organisms that range from leeches and worms to amphibian larvae.

Live bearing, the diminutive 4-5 inch long neonates are exactly like the adults in all except size.
Continue reading “North Florida Swamp Snake” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! Love this Harry Greene Approved field shot of a juvenile Timber in our photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user jameswv ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. It is our goal to help dispel the fears surrounding our beloved venomous creatures.

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In our opinion, Water Snakes, like the one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Lachesis1 are among the most under-rated and misunderstood of our non-venomous snakes. We, however, love them! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Most commonly known as the harlequin toad, this Atelopus barbotinitakes center stage in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user jamesmatthews! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Newborns are always something that cures a bad day. This little Ctenosaura palearis in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ilovemonitorliza is just the cure for the blues! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This, the chocolate treefrog, is one that we eagerly seek but seldom see.
Knock- knock- knock- knock.

Hmmmm, I wonder?

Again the knocking but this time I was bit closer. The sound came from a few feet into the rainforest to the left of the slippery, very muddy trail. I had a pretty good idea what was calling but had to be sure. Checking to make sure I wouldn’t be walking into some “monkey-get-back-bush” or brushing against a tree bustling with bullet ants, I moved from the trail, over numbers of small fallen trees, into the brushy forest.

By then, what had been a steady but gentle rainfall suddenly decided to become a more typical, ferocious Amazonian downpour. With the increase in rainfall came a corresponding increase in the knock-knock calls.

It doesn’t do much good to wear rain gear in the Amazon. Within seconds a raincoat becomes a sweatcoat and boots are soon wetter inside than out. The most prudent thing is to simple get soaked by the almost body temperature rain and drip dry between showers while you walk along. And so I stood amidst the knocking calls, dripping and looking but not drying.

Finally one of the calls came from almost overhead. Looking upward about 4’ over my head I noticed a knothole in a small tree. And from the knothole again came the call—but 4 feet above my head on a rain-slicked tree was, for an old guy, shall we just say, well out of reach.

Improvisation was necessary. The fallen tree trunks came to mind. Would they stack and could I stack them high and securely enough to reach into that knothole? Yes, yes, and yes.
And within a few minutes I had a knock-knock critter in hand. As suspected it was a frog, a hylid frog, and a pretty one at that. With a milk chocolate dorsum and legs and dark chocolate sides, belly, and eyes, I had in hand a Nyctimantis rugiceps, a chocolate or brown-eyed treefrog!

Continue reading “Chocolate Treefrog” …read more
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In our celebration of all things venomous on Friday, this little rough-scaled bush viper (Atheris hispida) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user eekster26 is looking forward to the weekend! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Love the detail in this headshot of a Uroplatus fimbriatus in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user zmarchetti ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This Box turtlle is loving life in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Jen350 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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HR6362 has been introduced and is titled the “Invasive Fish and Wildlife Prevention Act of 2018.” The bill was introduced by Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and with no co-sponsors. This

USARK broke down the bill and what it intends to do in plain english for us:

Makes illegal the transportation of injurious species between states: “it is unlawful for any person… to import into the United States or transport between States any wildlife designated as an injurious wildlife…”
Creates a list of species which are “not in trade” and those species cannot be imported or transported between states unless or until they are reviewed by the Secretary;
Ambiguously defines “not in trade” species as those non-native species that are not “widely” imported or transported between states (i.e. no definition for the word widely) within the past year;
Within three years from the effective date, a list of all ‘‘wildlife not in trade to the United States’’ must be compiled and that list reviewed to see if any of those species should be designated as injurious;
Allows for an immediately effective emergency rule to add species as injurious;
Requires the establishment of an electronic database for imports of all wildlife which identifies injurious species;
States that the Secretary of the Interior possesses authority to regulate wildlife pathogens and parasites (i.e. Bsal) which currently falls under the jurisdiction of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA);
Makes less burdensome (easier) the listing of species as injurious;
Creates the “Injurious Wildlife Prevention Fund” funded by a new “user fee” (i.e., tax) on wildlife imports.

For more information, visit the USARK notice here. …read more
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This little Retic has it’s eye on you in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Steve_Ray ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This Jungle Carpet is so bright it is almost glowing in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ttreptile1 !! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Hydrops martii has narrow, prominent bands.
The theme of red, black, and yellow (or white) bands/rings is not uncommon among Amazonian snakes. Not only are there a number of coral snake species that bear those familiar colors (although not in the sequence that we in the USA are familiar with), but there are a number of harmless and rear-fanged taxa so clad. Two of the latter are the primarily aquatic coral mud snakes, the broad banded Hydrops triangularis bassleri and the narrow banded Hydrops martii.

Like most Amazonian snakes, the 2 taxa of mud snakes are everywhere but nowhere. If you search specifically for them you will almost certainly fail. But the, if you’re out looking for aquarium fish or Amazonian water snakes (Helicops sp.) at night you just may luck onto a Hydrops. That’s just the way the Amazon works.

And so one rainy night we decided to look for caiman on an Amazon tributary. A half dozen of us clambered aboard a small boat and off we went. A half hour later we found a hatchling spectacled caiman, but we didn’t know that at the time. We did know that we found a big, and very unexpected, Hydrops martii that had obviously just consumed a huge meal. Not wanting to try for pix in the rain, we bagged the snake and returned to camp where we would then photograph the snake and return it to where it had been found. Good plan. Photogenic snake.

But when we opened the bag we had not only the pretty snake but with it was a hatchling caiman—regurgitated, sticky, but apparently none-the-worse for its harrowing experience. We made note of the before then unknown food item then turned both loose.

And as far as the other Hydrops species, H. triangularis bassleri, is concerned, one night during a pelting rain, I walked, as I had done 100 times before, from my cabin to the edge of the little oxbow a few dozen yards away. There in the shallows lay a bassleri, the first and only one I had/have ever seen in the wild. Go figure.
Continue reading “Coral Mud Snakes” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We hopped into the way back machince to find this field shot of Cerastes cerastes in our photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user shahar ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world. It is our goal to help dispel the fears surrounding our beloved venomous creatures.

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As you can see here in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mjmullis , there is no doubt where the name came from! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This little African Stump-tailed Chameleon (Ri. brevicaudatus) is waiting for his snack in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pardalisberlin ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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We so love baby shots, like this Radiated Tortoise hatching right here in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user radiata137 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This vibrant Cape Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer vertebralis) in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user pitparade will brighten your Monday for sure! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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A tangle of aquatic caecilians, including gravid females.
It was about midnight and a heavy seasonal shower had just abated. I was standing on the edge of a small inlet on the Rio Orosa in Amazonian Peru. I had been hoping to find a small aquatic snake or two, had actually succeeded (another story), and was just about to call it a night when a bit of a commotion in the shallows a dozen feet from me caught my eye. I hurried the few steps needed to get to the disturbance, and saw what appeared to be a big dark colored worm rapidly coiling and uncoiling.

Dark and a worm, eh? Ah ha! An aquatic caecilian, Typhlonectes compressicauda, my first in the wild. .As I watched it uncoiled and moved slowly—forward, stop, reverse a little, probe, forward again–into some water edge, emergent, vegetation. I watched it for another 5 minutes before it disappeared into the bottom mulm.

These representatives of the third group of amphibians (the other 2 being the caudatans and the anurans) were once common (although, legally they shouldn’t have been) in the pet trade. Most that arrived here (USA) were imported from Colombia as tropical fish (“rubber eels”, if you will—they were also marketed as “Sicilian” eels!). Adults are hardy aquarium animals, feeding well on black (tubifex) worms or sectioned earthworms. Adults are legless, finless, have a tactile tentacle, and lack external gills. The babies, borne alive, have large, external, parchment like gills.

Perhaps at some point in time these will again be available; perhaps not. But if they are, they are an interesting and easily kept amphibian species for aquarists and herpers alike.
Continue reading “Aquatic Caecilian” …read more
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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! This fantastic headshot of a Copperhead our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user cochran reminds us that on Rattlesnake Friday, we celebrate all our venomous creatures! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Loving this juvenile alligator in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mbwright82 chilling out on a warm day! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Sonoma County has some beautiful Black Speckled Salamanders, just like this one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user skyserpent ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This sideneck turtle is playing shy in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user reptilicus81 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We are seeing red with this gorgeous shot of a Pygmy Rattlesnake our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Tamers1 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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What a lovely pair of Vietnamese Leaf Turtles in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user schroderal ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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With his nose peeking through the baby goo, this boa’s first moments are here in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user dpiscopo69,! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This juvenile yellow Anaconda is ready for his close-up in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mattf77 ,! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This lacerta is loving to lounge in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user krloucks . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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