Description: It averages 20 inches when fully grown, with a record of 31.5 inches. Its color is best described as chocolate brown.

Habitat: Habitats include slow waters of lowland areas, such as swamps, nontidal and tidal freshwater marshes, sphagnum bogs, pocosins, seepage wetlands, ponds, lakes, flatwoods ponds, cypress ponds, bayous, rice fields, canals, drainage ditches, mucky areas along streams, and floodplains; also sometimes grassy or wooded upland habitats adjacent to wetlands. Usually this snake is secluded in burrows (e.g., crayfish, muskrat), under mats of wet vegetation or debris at the water's edge, or among aquatic plants, but occasionally it basks on banks or on vegetation over water. It may travel on land during rain.

Range: Still compiling data.

Found in these States: AL | AR | FL | LA | MS | OK | TX

Diet: This subspecies feeds almost entirely on crayfish.

Reproduction: ovovivparous

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, tolerance of a degree of habitat modification, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomy: