Broad-banded Copperhead

Agkistrodon laticinctus

Reptiles & AmphibiansIn the app

The Broad-branded copperhead is a species with light tan skin colour and a broad reddish-brown or copper bands. These bands range from 10 to 17. A full grown adult has a…

How to identify

The Broad-branded copperhead is a species with light tan skin colour and a broad reddish-brown or copper bands. These bands range from 10 to 17. A full grown adult has a length varying between 20 and 30 inches. It has a large head which contains large venom glands just before the neck, with hinged fangs which comes out during attack or defence. Its coloration and size exists in the same form but the young have paler skin pigmentation.

Range

The Broad-banded Copperhead is located mainly in the southern region of the United States of America. It spreads from Central Texas to the southern border of Kansas and Oklahoma.

Habitat

It is often seen around upland wood areas with sandy soil. It uses a good amount of ground debris for cover, always not far from a water source. It dwells in other micro habitat like rotten log of wood, pile of leaves, legends, rocky bluffs and others. It is an ambush predator. While the adults feed on rodents, birds, frogs and the likes, their young feed on insects like cicadas. They are ovoviviparous, birthing up to 8 offsprings in the early fall.

Similar species

The eastern copperhead (agkistrodon contortrix) has a typical length of of 50-95 cm with a pinkish-tan skin colour which gets darker towards the foreline. The northern cottonmouth (agkistrodon piscivorus) is the largest species in the genus agkistrodon with an adult, exceeding 80cm. It has a broad head with substantial cranial plate, distinct from the neck and a blunt snout. The eastern hog-nosed snake (heterodon platirhinos) has an upturned snout which it uses to dig through sandy soil. They don’t have an exclusive skin color or pattern. Their skin color depends on their locality.