Description: The western smooth earthsnake is a small, plain, slightly stout snake. It is gray, brown, or reddish brown, with no distinct markings except tiny black dots. Sometimes a faint stripe runs down the back. The belly is cream-colored or light yellow. Adult length: 7 to 10 inches; occasionally to slightly more than 15 inches.

Habitat: A secretive species, it lives in leaf litter and under rocks, logs, and other objects on rocky, wooded hillsides and in moist woods. Its preferred habitats are in open woodlands with moist, loose soils — places that provide ideal cover and loose soil for burrowing and locating earthworms, their favorite prey.

Range: southern Indiana through western Kentucky and Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to eastern Kansas and central Texas.

Found in these States: AL | AR | IA | IL | IN | KS | KY | LA | MO | MS | OK | TN

Diet: Foods include earthworms, slugs, and some soft-bodied insects such as cutworms (noctuid moth caterpillars that frequently live in the soil).

Reproduction: Mating usually occurs in April and May and possibly in the autumn. Females give birth to live young in August through September. Litters typically contain 2 to 14. Individuals become sexually mature by their second or third year of life.

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: