Gulf Salt Marsh Snake, Nerodia clarkii clarkii (Baird and Girard, 1853). Photographs of captive snakes. Adults reach 914 mm in total length. Litter size ranges from 3-19. This is the only endemic water snake know to use brackish water. It is known to use its tongue to lure fish. The second photo is a red color morph of the subspecies known as the Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake, Nerodia clarkii compressicauda (Cope, 1860). N. clarkii ranges from the Atlantic Coast of Florida, around peninsular Florida to coastal Texas. It appears to be most closely related to Nerodia sipedon.
The Plain Belly Water Snake, Nerodia erythrogaster (Forester, 1771). First photo is a Blotched Water Snake, N. e. transversa, from eastern Kansas. The second photo is a Yellow Belly Water Snake, N. e. flavigaster, from western Tennessee. The next two photographs are a snake from western Union County, Illinois and is also most likely referable to N. e. flavigaster, or from a population that integrades with the Copper Belly Water Snake, N. e. neglecta. Note the color of the ventral scales (bottom photograph). Adult size is about 1.49 m. It has a distribution ranging from Michigan to the east coast and west to Texas and south into Mexico. The distribution is often discontinuous.
Banded Water Snake, Nerodia fasciata (Linnaeus, 1766). Adults reach about 1.5 m. It uses a variety of freshwater habitats from North Carolina to Texas. Banded Water Snakes eat a long list of fish and amphibian species. Litter sizes as large as 57 young have been reported, but the mean is about 20. The upper photo is an individual from Onslow County, North Carolina. The bottom photo is an individual from Dixie County, Florida.
The Diamondback Water Snake, Nerodia rhombifera (Hallowell, 1852). Photographed in southern Mississippi (top) and in Alexander County, Illinois (bottom). This is a species of the south central USA, which extends into Mexico to Veracruz. It rarely wanders far from water and feeds on fish, with some populations specializing in feeding on frogs. Adults reach 1.6 m in total length. Litter sizes range from 11 to 62.
The Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon (Linnaeus, 1758). The first four photographs were taken in Will County, Illinois and the subspecies is N. s. sipedon. The bottom photo is a captive Carolina Water Snake, N. s. williamengelsi Conant and Lazell, 1973 from North Carolina. The Northern Water Snake is ubiquitous over much of eastern North America and their are few bodies of permanent water where they cannot be found. Food includes mostly fish, but they will eat almost any vertebrate they can swallow and many invertebrates. In the two photos showing snakes feeding the prey turned out to be too large for ingestion. The snakes gave up after a struggle, in the case of the sunfish, the fish managed to swim away. The catfish however was pulled out of the water for swallowing and the snake eventually abandoned it, possibly because I disturbed it.
Adult size is about 1.5 m. Females may require two years to mature in the northern portions of the range, and they have been reported to give birth to litters of up to 99 young. However, the mean litter size is about 20 young.
The Brown Water, Nerodia taxispilota (Holbrook, 1842). Top two photos are a large adult from Craven County, North Carolina. The bottom photo is a young specimen from the panhandle of Florida. Adults reach 1.7 m. It ranges from southeast Virginia southward to southern Florida and westward to Alabama. Coastal populations will apparently enter brackish water, but for the most part this species uses still freshwaters of swamps and lakes and slow moving rivers. They feed mostly on fish, and show a preference for ictalurid catfish. Litter size ranges from 4-61, with the mean probably about 18 young.
