Scarlet Snake

Authored By: Wilson

Cemophora coccinea
Scarlet Snake

SRSN

Status

The Scarlet Snake is uncommon to locally common throughout its range. The subspecies C. c. lineri is state listed as threatened in Texas.

Description

The Scarlet Snake is a small to medium-sized (36–82 cm), smooth-scaled, brightly patterned snake. The dorsal pattern consists of red saddles bordered by black on a ground color of cream or yellowish-white. The snout is red and pointed and the venter is white, unlike those of the similarly patterned Scarlet Kingsnake and Eastern Coral Snake. Three subspecies are recognized: copei, lineri, and coccinea.

Distribution

Cemophora coccinea ranges from southern New Jersey to the tip of Florida, and westward to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. Disjunct populations occur in Missouri, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

Habitat

This secretive snake is an excellent burrower, spending much of its time concealed in rotting logs, under bark, stones, leaf litter, pine needles, or burrowed in the ground. It is most often encountered on dry, hot summer nights when it forages on the surface. The Scarlet Snake apparently prefers relatively xeric, well-drained soils with forest types including shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, pitch pine, sandy pine flatwoods, and longleaf pine-scrub oak sandhill areas. Occasionally, it has been found in open fields, residential areas, coastal sand prairies, or near swamps.

Special Requirements

The Scarlet Snake requires well-drained, friable soils with an abundance of ground debris.

Breeding Habits

Knowledge of the breeding and courtship of this secretive snake is virtually unknown. The Scarlet Snake is oviparous; clutch size varies from three to eight elongated eggs.

Food Habits

Reptile eggs are apparently its preferred diet. Other prey items include insects, lizards, and salamanders (Wright and Wright, 1957).

Management Suggestions

The Scarlet Snake is most common in open habitat which has sandy or other friable soils. It would benefit from management practices which retain the open canopy, early successional nature of its habitat. These practices would include periodic burning, and light site disturbing forms of selective cutting and thinning. The Scarlet Snake becomes most common in coastal forests and the Coastal Plain sandhills. Protecting this habitat from further development would protect this species as well as herptiles such as the Southern Hognose Snake.