Rough road herping: finding a rough earth snake

Only minutes earlier we had found on the pavement one of the prettiest little banded water snakes I had ever seen. Jake and I were up in Columbia County, Florida, and although conditions were a bit wet and cool, a few interesting snakes were crossing.

Garters, ribbons, waters, a corn, and a yellow rat had been seen. Actually our target for the night was a living example of the rough earth snake, Haldea (formerly Virginia) striatula, a tiny burrowing species.

A few days earlier we had been on the same roadway and had seen 3 rough earth snakes. Sadly all had been DOR. Since both Jake and I wished to upgrade our photos of this species, we had decided to try our luck once more.

Not only had we seen none, but until finding the little water snake mentioned above we had not seen anything of great interest.

We had just about given up on finding our target that night when, on the last pass, the rain having nearly stopped: bingo! An earth snake, the only one seen that night, was slowly crossing in front of us. Success!

Note: Based on genetic findings, the generic name of Haldea has recently been resurrected for this small snake. Whether this will be accepted remains to be seen.

Note the barely discernible light collar of this species. This example of the rough earth snake was found beneath a fallen treetrunk.

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.