On Labor Day, 5 September 2011, while I was doing research in Garland, Texas, my cell phone rang. On answering, Darryl Archer, of Manvel, Texas (a town of 7,000, some 24 miles due south of Houston), spoke the following words to me: “Hi, Mr. Cates… my wife just got bit by a snake in our back yard, and I’m hoping you can help me identify what bit her.” [...]
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This is a western cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma), also known as a water moccasin. The copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) has pinkish copper-colored markings — emphasis on the pinkish background — and the face does not have the conspicuous black eye stripe, from the eye back to the mouthline, edged in white, as shown in your specimen. [...] The thumbnail to its right shows the unsheathed fang next to a measuring bar with 1/8th inch (3.2 mm) graduations. From that image we can safely conclude the fangs of this specimen would be able to penetrate to about 5/8th inch (16 mm) or more into the flesh of its prey or that of a perceived threat… [...] You look closer. A snake, swimming in the languid stream, is clearly the source of the disturbance. Its body glides along the water’s surface, halfway submerged along its length, half above the water line. “What kind of snake is it?” you wonder. But how can you possibly make a good guess about its identity, this far away? That’s a good question, provided there is a good answer to go with it. And, it happens, there is. A good answer, that is. [...] Recently, Tom was surveying a portion of the Sam Houston Nationaf Forest for additional specimens of the western pygmy rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius streckeri). He knew that serpent was common to the area, as he had found several there in the past; in fact, the specimen whose ph0tograph is posted here was found in that area, on the path he was now surveying. Suddenly, he came upon an eastern hog-nosed snake (Heterodon platirhinos) on the same path and was amazed at the similarities in colorations and markings. “At first glance,” he admitted, “I actually thought I’d come upon a Sistrurus.” It is obvious why Tom, one of the most experienced herpetologists in the world, could have been fooled — if only for an instant — into mistaking this particular eastern hog-nosed snake for a western pygmy rattlesnake. They are remarkably similar, and — most likely — the resemblance is not coincidental. [...] The western pygmy rattlesnake is a smallish, gray-brown or pale gray rattlesnake, usually with short, distinctive lateral marks, wider than long, regularly spaced along its spine, and one to three rows of small splotches on its lateral body. A pale orange wash extends along the spine as a series of short dashes that separate the spinal bars without encroaching on them. The effect is of an indistinct orange spinal stripe, but on close examination one can see that the “stripe” is actually broken up between each bar. [...] This 17-inch-long, juvenile Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake was observed by a sharp-eyed night shift supervisor at a commercial facility in San Antonio. The supervisor, a woman, was walking down a well-lighted hallway–at midnight–when she saw what she thought was a snake’s head peering out from under the locked doorway to an office. The office’s occupant, who worked the 9-5 shift, was not in at the time. [...] This species of rattlesnake is relatively rare in Texas (and inasmuch as it is considered threatened, is protected from sport hunting and collecting in the state: per comments received by Brandon McHenry, of the TPWD, the reader is invited to review the material posted by Texas Parks & Wildlife on this serpent), but is more common in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It inhabits lowland forests, hilly woodlands near water courses, ponds, and lakes, and canebrakes across the eastern Texas gulf coast. [...] Steve wrote: “We’re having a pool put in the back yard of our home in Round Rock. My daughter and I were picking up branches after taking a tree down, and found this copperhead in the bottom of the woodpile.” [...] |
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