I hate to dump on **Crotalus **yet again, but I’m not seeing any pattern at all on the dorsum of **Earl’s **snake. Maybe it’s my browser, but I just don’t see it. The closest to patternless water snakes I am familiar with are the Green Water Snakes, and this individual doesn’t seem to have the correct head shape nor adequate girth. To me, the picture suggests something in genus Regina. Maybe not Queen, but perhaps Glossy Crayfish.
Yellow bellied is possible, I guess, but this listfrom Savannah River doesn’t include it in snakes of SC and GA.
I guess this will all remain speculation without a picture of the belly. Earl, in the future, can we trouble you for extra shots demonstrating size, showing the underside pattern, and maybe a good closeup of the head scalation?
Dan - where I see traces of pattern is the middle third of the body, to the right of the spine, lighter in color than the brown. And I have the impression that it is too heavy-bodied for a Regina species.
And with Nerodia, we’re going to be guessing unless the snake is young and soaking wet and cooperatively showing part of its belly.
OK, enlarged to 200% I can see the patterning. I’ll give you Nerodia as a best guess.
But beyond that I’m still seeing a highly plastic genus wherein “species” based on morphology has little utility beyond our desire to pigeonhole animal life. That’s just the lumper rant, I know. Forgive me.
My little ringneck knows how to pose for a picture showing necessary detail! (Post 18)
I don’t really think that’s an Eastern Brown Snake (Australian venomous species, 2nd deadliest in the world) but the resemblance is close enough for me to stay the hell away from OP’s snake, even if it was sighted in South Carolina. I mean, South Carolina never has been real big on regulation, ya know, so there probably is a private serpentarium somewhere in the state that no one even knows about that has a few Eastern Browns living in a cardboard box.
