Here’s a new species of snake for Pearl Creek Farm, Western Wormsnake (Carphophis vermis). These two individuals were found under a cover board we placed a couple of years ago.

This species of snake is common throughout most of the Ozarks but they appear to be absent from much of the Springfield Plateau, only to reappear again in eastern Kansas before disappearing for good in the Flint Hills. I will be the first to state that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But, in this case, I didn’t expect to find this species here as I had searched extensively for it every spring since we moved out here.

Western Wormsnakes are usually on the surface for only a few weeks in mid-spring. They are commonly encountered on rocky, wooded hillsides during this time and are often found on open glades. Their ventral coloration extends onto the dorsal scales as seen in the photographs below, leaving their dark gray or blackish dorsal coloration as a single longitudinal stripe on an otherwise pink snake.