Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake

This is a normally colored and patterned dusky pygmy rattler. Dusky pygmy rattlers, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri, are among the most abundant snakes, including both nonvenomous and venomous—in Florida. I can remember finding these in such numbers beneath the Australian pines that lined the old Tamiami Canal west of Dade County that it was far easier to ignore them than to count them. They were nearly as plentiful in Broward, Lee, Collier, Charlotte, and Brevard counties. And they remain one of the snakes that we can be almost assured of seeing when weather conditions are reasonable in Union, Baker, and Liberty counties. Simply stated, although they can be absent from some locales dusky pygmy rattlesnakes are almost everywhere in Florida. In keeping with the common name dusky pygs are usually just that, dusky in color and “dusty” in appearance. The dusty appearance is created by a varying overlay of melanin that may obscure the precise outlines of the dark dorsal and lateral spots. This nervous (even twitchy) little rattlesnake usually has a prominent but broken orange vertebral stripe between the dark blotches and often brightest anteriorly. Some examples, these often termed “anerythristic” by hobbyists, may lack the orange. Rarely—very rarely—the pattern of the dusky pyg may be lineate rather than blotched. On these examples the lateral blotches are usually entirely lacking and the orange vertebral stripe may be unbroken, bisecting both the gray ground color and the dark dorsal blotches. And now to the photos of this interesting little crotaline, click below…

Striped dusky pygmy rattlesnakes are well documented.

Some dusky pygmys lack ecven vestiges of red. Hobbyists term these anerythristic.