great plains rat snake belly

A blotched pattern of gray, brown, red-brown or olive-brown is seen on a light gray body. Size: Adults 24 - 36 inches (61 - 91 cm) Prey: Rodents, bats, and birds. The tail has stripes underneath. The belly is checkered forming well-defined dark brown squarish blotches. There is a smaller of similarly colored alternating blotches at the mid-line laterally and even smaller blotches just above the belly scutes. The belly is checkered and it has stripes under its tail. Great Plains Rat Snake Belly Great Plains Rat Snake Care Published on December 27th 2016 by staff under Snakes. The belly is white with bold, squarish black markings, and black or dark gray stripes under the tail. They can often be found on farmland, which often leads it to be erroneously called the chicken snake, and other areas with a relatively high rodent population, which is their primary diet. With a diet of insects, frogs, and lizards, these snakes can grow to a whooping 55 inches long. Though this snake has very small teeth and is nonvenomous, it will bite. There stripes on either side of the head which meet to form a point between the eyes. With two different types of this snake found in two different parts of the state, the East and West, yellow-bellied racers are harmless. They will also eat birds, and occasionally snakes, lizards and frogs, all of which they subdue by constriction. Pantherophis emoryi, commonly known as the Great Plains rat snake, is a species of nonvenomous rat snake native to the central part of the United States, from Missouri to Nebraska, to Colorado, south to Texas, and into northern Mexico. Reproduction: Additional common names for Pantherophis emoryi include the following: brown rat snake, chicken snake, eastern spotted snake, Emory's Coluber, Emory's pilot snake, Emory's racer, Emory's snake, gray rat snake, mouse snake, prairie rat snake, spotted mouse snake, Texas rat snake, and western pilot snake.[3]. Related Species. The belly is patterned with black and white. "How and when did Old World ratsnakes disperse into the New World?". They are capable of growing from 3 feet to 5 feet long. Burbrink FT (2002). The Great Plains rat snake is typically light gray or tan in color, with dark gray, brown, or green-gray blotching down its back, and stripes on either side of the head which meet to form a point between the eyes. It is sometimes confused as a Slowinski's corn snake, which is a subspecies of corn snake which is commonly kept as a pet. It has often been placed in the genus Elaphe, but recent phylogenetic analyses have resulted in its transfer to Pantherophis. "Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World ratsnakes. However, as a whole, this species of snake is very calm and non-aggressive. The epithet, emoryi, is in honor of Brigadier General William Hemsley Emory, who was chief surveyor of the U.S. Boundary Survey team of 1852 and collected specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. Grows between 14 and 20 inches. Similar in color and pattern to the red milk snake, but has a red or orange snout with a white belly. They are primarily nocturnal, and oviparous, laying clutches of as many as 25 eggs in the late spring. Great Plains rat snakes prefer open grassland or lightly forested habitats, but are also found on coastal plains, semi-arid regions, as well as rocky, moderately mountainous regions. "Phylogeographic analysis of the corn snake (, Rat Snakes of North America: Great Plains Rat Snake, Utah's Hogle Zoo: The Great Plains Rat Snake, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pantherophis_emoryi&oldid=966088422, Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 5 July 2020, at 02:03. Number of dorsal blotches is the primary character used to separate the two subspecies in Texas: Pantherophis emoryi emoryi has more blotches (45 or more) than P. e. meahllmorum (44.5 or less). Pantherophis emoryi, commonly known as the Great Plains rat snake, is a species of nonvenomous rat snake native to the central part of the United States, from Missouri to Nebraska, to Colorado, south to Texas, and into northern Mexico.It is sometimes confused as a Slowinski's corn snake, which is a subspecies of corn snake which is commonly kept as a pet. With a pattern and coloration similar to the prairie kingsnake, the great plains ratsnake has a few differences: its scales are weekly keeled and the anal plate is divided. "Neogene diversification and taxonomic stability in the snake tribe Lampropeltini (Serpentes: Colubridae)". They’re known for their smooth scales and bluish-grey upper body with, you guessed it, a yellow or cream belly. Similar species: The prairie kingsnake is more common in our state. Most recently, Burbrink suggested that Pantherophis guttatus be split into three species: Pantherophis guttatus, Pantherophis emoryi, and Pantherophis slowinskii.[7]. [4][5][6], Pantherophis emoryi has been elevated to full species status and downgraded to a subspecies of Pantherophis guttatus multiple times. Pyron RA, Burbrink FT (2009). Burbrink FT, Lawson R (2007). Warning signs of agitation are curling up tightly, shaking its tail rapidly. Like most rat snakes, when agitated, the Great Plains rat snake will shake its tail vigorously, which by itself makes no noise, but when it shakes amongst dry leaf litter, it can sound remarkably like a rattlesnake, and often leads to misidentification. Pigment on the underside of the tail forms two lines that run the length of the tail. [2] As such, it is sometimes referred to as Emory's rat snake. Article was last reviewed on 13th June 2019. This species, Pantherophis emoryi, has undergone extensive reclassification since it was first described by Spencer Fullerton Baird and Charles Frédéric Girard in 1853 as Scotophis emoryi. In both subspecies, the belly is mostly white with black markings forming a feeble checkerboard pattern. The two are sometimes interbred to produce varying pattern and color morphs. Like other ratsnakes, Great Plains ratsnakes vibrate their tails when alarmed and will bite to defend themselves, but the bite is harmless. Utiger U, Helfenberger N, Schätti B, Schmidt C, Ruf M, Ziswiler V (2002). Lives underground for most of its life, but goes above ground to feed on the eggs of other reptiles, rodents, lizards, and small snakes.

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