About This Guide

This 'Online Guide to the Snakes of Florida' was compiled, edited and formatted by Prof. F. Wayne King and Kenneth L. Krysko, Division of Herpetology, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA.

The suggested citation for the Guide is:

King, F. Wayne, and Kenneth L. Krysko. 2000. Online Guide to the Snakes of Florida. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. 266 p. Available at:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/fl-guide/onlineguide.htm

The individual species accounts were authored by students who enrolled in the University of Florida 'Herpetology' (Natural History of Reptiles and Amphibians) class or who worked in the FLMNH Division of Herpetology.

The following individuals wrote the species accounts for:

• Kareem R. Abdelfattah — Mud snake, Farancia abacura
• Tamatha Barbeau — Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus.
• Jamie Barichivich — Queen snake, Regina septemvittata, and pine woods snake, Rhadinea flavilata.
• Michael Cherkiss — Florida crowned snakes, Tantilla relicta.
• Cheryl K. Cheshire — Black swamp snake, Seminatrix pygaea.
• Valerie C. Clark — Black Pine snake, Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi, and northern redbelly snake, Storeria o. occipitomaculata.
• Kevin Coleman — Green snakes, Opheodrys aestivus.
• Geoff Davidson — Florida green, Mississippi green, midland, redbelly, yellowbelly and brown water snakes, Nerodia floridana, N. cyclopion, N. sipedon pleuralis, N. e. erythrogaster, N. e. flavigaster, and N. taxispilota, respectively.
• Jennifer Farrington — Ringneck snakes, Diadophis punctatus.
• Ali Hamilton — Brown snakes, Storeria dekayi.
• Al Kinlaw — Eastern coachwhip, Masticophis flagellum.
• Gregg S. Klowden — Indigo Snake, Drymarchon corais, eastern and southern hognose snakes, Heterodon platirhinos and H. simus.
• Kenneth L. Krysko — Scarlet Snakes, Cemophora coccinea, racers, Coluber constrictor, corn snakes, Elaphe guttata, rat snakes, Elaphe obsoleta, mud snakes, Farancia abacura, rainbow snakes, Farancia erytrogramma, mole kingsnakes, Lampropeltis calligaster, kingsnakes, Lampropeltis getula, scarlet kingsnake, Lampropeltis triangulum.
• Andrea Litt — Redbelly snake, Storeria occipitomaculata, and crowned snake and rim rock crowned snake, Tantilla coronata and T. oolitica.
• Lara Maxwell — Ribbon snakes and garter snakes, Thamnophis sauritus and T. sirtalis.
• Susan Moss — Mole kingsnakes, kingsnakes, and scarlet kingsnakes, Lampropeltis calligaster, L. getula and L. triangulum.
• Anthony Reppas — Racers, Coluber constrictor.
• Celeste Shitama — Eastern diamondback and timber rattlesnakes, Crotalus adamanteus and C. horridus, and pigmy rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius.
  
• Lora Smith and Joseph Roman — Eastern coachwhip, Masticophis flagellum, salt marsh snakes, Nerodia clarkii, and Eastern coral snake, Micrurus fulvius.
• Jennifer Staiger — Striped and glossy crayfish snakes, Regina alleni and R. rigida, banded watersnakes, Nerodia fasciata, pine snakes, Pituophis melanoleucus, rough and smooth earth snakes, Virginia striatula and V. valeriae, rough green snakes, Opheodrys aestivus, and short-tailed snake, Stilosoma extenuatum.
• Kenneth Wray — Mud snakes and rainbow snakes, Farancia abacura and F. erytrogramma.

F. Wayne King and Kenneth Krysko wrote all other snake accounts. They then edited all the species accounts into a standard format in which the common name and photos appeared first, followed by scientific name, description, range, habitat, comments, and comparison with other species. King and Krysko then wrote the key to identification, and the sections on color patterns, scales, comparisons, habitats, how to get along with snakes, and bibliography.

By-lines under the photographs credit the photographers, who kindly gave us permission for this one-time use of their images — Kenneth L. Krysko, Barry Mansell, Richard Bartlett, Rick Owen, David Auth, Randy Babb, Max Nickerson, J. Perran Ross, Phil Stokoe, Kenneth Wray, Mike Nieses, Paul Korhonen, and F. Wayne King. All photographs are copyrighted by the Florida Museum of Natural History or the individual photographer. The 35mm color transparency slides of the whole animals supplied by the photographers were the source of the computer generated images of particular parts of the snakes. Finally, no color photographs exist of the South Florida rainbow snake, Farancia erytrogramma seminola. The ones that appear in this guide were produced by adding computer generated color to black and white photographs of the faded type specimen in the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Illustrations of color patterns, scales, facial pits, and rattlesnake rattles, were produced by F. Wayne King. Most line drawings of snake heads are adapted from: E.D. Cope. 1898. The Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America. Report of the U.S. National Museum. i-xviii + 151-1294 p.

This 'Online Guide to the Snakes of Florida' is the first step in the production of a comprehensive 'Online Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Florida'. The students in the 1999 Natural History of Reptiles and Amphibians class have already written the turtle and salamander accounts and some of the lizard accounts. As soon as King and Krysko can get them edited and formatted for the web and locate photographs to illustrate the accounts, they will go online. Keep checking 'Florida Herpetology' at: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/herpetology.htm.

We believe that this is the first World Wide Web equivalent to a full-blown fieldguide to the snakes of Florida. We realize that you cannot lug a desktop computer into the field, even a laptop computer would be too cumbersome, for which we apologize. Nevertheless, we hope that you find this 'Online Guide to the Snakes of Florida' so interesting and useful that you earmark it in your web browser and use it often.

We welcome your comments on the Guide and on the snakes. We can be reached by email at: Snakes of Florida.

Guide to the Snakes of Florida — Guide to Venomous Snakes of Florida
Checklist of Florida Amphibians and Reptiles — Florida Herpetology