Squamata suborder Serpentes
Virginia valeriae --Smooth Earthsnake
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Purple shade indicates vouchered specimens. Light blue (cyan)
shade indicates photographic records. Yellow shade indicates verified
sighting. Slanted hatch indicates pre-1980 records only
NOTE: Not all specimens upon which these maps are based have been verified.
Key Characters: Back scales weakly keeled and in 17 rows; anal plate divided.
Similar Species: Ringneck snake, brown snake, redbelly snake, worm snake.
Subspecies: Western earthsnake, V. v. elegans.
Description: Small (up to 35 cm TL), medium brown, dark olive, or gray-brown snake with a distinct head and plain white belly. Back unpatterned (sometimes with minute dark flecks). Belly white, usually with a slight greenish yellow tint, sometimes with a few dark flecks toward the side. Pointed snout.
Habitat: Rocky, wooded hillsides.
Natural History: Semifossorial and nocturnal. Surface activity sometimes stimulated by heavy rains. Often found in or under rotting logs, as well as under rocks and in forest-floor leaf litter. Mates late April or May, after emerging from hibernation in deep hillside crevices, and 3-8 tiny young are born in August. Newborn 7-12 cm TL and may be darker than adults. Diet includes mainly earthworms and other soft-bodied insects, slugs, and snails. Predators include other snakes, birds, and mammals.
Status: Locally common in the Shawnee Hills and the bluffs along the Mississippi River in southern counties.