|
|
The harmless broad-banded water snake is a beautiful snake, with broad bands of olive, black, dark brown, and reddish brown patches separated by yellowish interstices. Those colors practically scream “copperhead” to the uninitiated, and even give many, if not most experienced herpers a start for a second or two when they happen upon one in the wild. It seems likely that this similarity is another example of Batesian mimicry (Wickler, 1968) that benefits the water snake by causing it to be mistaken for a copperhead, and thus to be given a wider berth — sparing its life — than would otherwise be the case. [...]
Like all things in life, fortunes sometimes favor the spider-eating-snake, and sometimes they favor the snake-eating-spider (and, just in case you hadn’t heard of a snake-eating-spider before, well… read on). [...]
Most species of North American water snakes in the genus Nerodia (from the Greek, ναρος [pron. "nay'-ros"] = “flowing, liquid, wet” + δια [pron. "dee'-uh"] = “through,” thus “one who swims in water”) have a reputation for nasty dispositions, and as they grow larger, their mouths and teeth become correspondingly larger. [...]
A fairly large number of snake species native to North America display well-defined longitudinal stripes that are not mixed together with other primary markings such as blotches, saddles, or the like. If one of these is a spinal stripe (thus excluding Baird’s rat snake and all the whip snakes, which are striped, but not on their spines), and that stripe is narrow (thus excluding the mountain patch-nosed snake, which has a broad spinal stripe) and brightly colored (thus excluding the Texas patch-nosed snake, which has a narrow spinal stripe that does not contrast brightly with the snake’s background color) in comparison to the background coloration of the snake–as in this specimen–the field of possibilities narrows considerably. [...]
The etymology of the generic name, Nerodia, is described elsewhere. The specific and subspecies names are the same, indicating this is considered the type-species; two Mexican subspecies, N. rhombifer werleri, and N. rhombifer blanchardi, respectively known locally as Tabasco and Tampico Diamond-backed water snakes, are found in northeast Mexico (The Mexican state of Tamaulipas: city of Tampico) and south along the Mexican Gulf and Atlantic coast (The Mexican state of Tabasco). The name rhombifer was assigned by the American herpetologist and physician Edward Hallowell (1808-1860) in 1852 when he first described the type species, and is derived from the Greek word ρομβος “rhombus” = a lozenge, i.e., a diamond-shaped article or marking. [...]
|
|
