Southern Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus punctatus)
Description: Size is 7 inches to 18 inches. This snake is very similar in appearance to the Northern Ringneck Snake, but with two exceptions. First, the neck ring on the Southern Ringneck Snake is incomplete, with a dark mark cutting through it at the top. Second, the underside of the Southern Ringneck Snake is marked with a series of black half-moons running down the midline. Scales are smooth; anal plate is divided.
Habitat: Varied but this common snake is usually found beneath rocks, logs, or other surface debris in seasonally moist woodlands, meadows, and even in suburban yards.
Range: Ringnecks are found throughout the eastern two thirds of the United States from southern Canada to Florida, across the desert southwest and along most of the Pacific coast. Ringnecks are found throughout Georgia and South Carolina with the northern subspecies (D. p. edwardsi) inhabiting the mountains and the southern subspecies (D. p. punctatus) being found in the Coastal Plain. Ringnecks from the Piedmont are intergrades between the two races.
Diet: Three prey types form the majority of the diet of this snake: earthworms, salamanders, and lizards.
Reproduction: Diadophis punctatus is oviparous, laying 2 to 7 eggs under rocks, and in and under logs where the substrate is moist. The number of eggs is positively related to the size of the female. Ring-necked Snake eggs are smooth, and averaged 27.7 ± 6.2 x 8.8 ± 0.7 mm in size and 1.32 grams wet mass.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the very large and probably relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. This species is not threatened in most of its range.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Scaled Reptiles
»» Suborder: Serpentes
»» Superfamily: Colubroidea
»» Family: Colubridae - Colubrids
»» Genus: Diadophis
»» Species: Diadophis punctatus - Ringneck Snake
»» Subspecies: Diadophis punctatus punctatus - Southern Ringneck Snake
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ring-necked Snake", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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