The cinnamon corns of Levy County

"Corn snake!"

"Where?"

"My side about 3 feet off the road"

I slammed on the brakes and Jake, piling out of the car, ran back about 40 feet and stooped to pick up a 30" long corn that I would never have seen. Young eyes are good! And Jake's eyes, having the image of a snake burned time again on the retina are super in seeing off-the-road serpents.

Actually, neither Jake nor I had any particular need for a corn snake, Pantherophis guttatus guttatus. We just happened to be in Levy County hoping to hear ornate chorus frogs (a species that is becoming difficult to find). Having arrived an hour or so before dusk, and since temperatures were still fairly warm, we decided to roadhunt for a while before heading for the swamps and marshes.

So far we had seen 2 crossing garter snakes of the blue-striped variety, a cottonmouth, and now this corn snake. We always enjoy taking photos, so a few minutes were spent doing so.

The corn snakes of western Levy County are rather distinctive, very pretty, and well worth photographing. The ground color is cinnamon, the saddles are crimson and are accentuated fore, aft, and on the sides by a few black scales that are themselves preceded by a variable number of white scales.

Did we need them? No. But they are just too pretty to pass by without at least a second glance. We could only hope that the hunt for chorus frogs would be this successful.

The facial aspect of a Levy County corn snake. A bit of white, a little black, and a lot of cinnamon and red is typical of Levy County corn snakes.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.