Glossy Swampsnake

Liodytes rigida

Reptiles & AmphibiansIn the app

A small-medium snake averaging 16 inches, but it can grow longer. It has mildly keeled, glossy scales, and is typically a solid dark green to olive brown on its dorsum. I…

How to identify

A small-medium snake averaging 16 inches, but it can grow longer. It has mildly keeled, glossy scales, and is typically a solid dark green to olive brown on its dorsum. Its ventrum is cream or yellowish with 2 adjacent rows of black spots that merge near the throat and on the tail. It has a small head with very large round eyes and a short snout with yellow scales around the mouth. Its neck is undefined.

Range

Range extends down the east coast from North Carolina to northern Florida, then stretches west along the Gulf coast to east Texas, and north to central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. A separate population is found in eastern Virginia.

Habitat

Semi-aquatic species found in a wide variety of stagnant or slow-moving freshwater habitats, such as swamps, bogs, ponds, rice fields, canals, drainage ditches, and floodplains. It will sometimes travel to grassy or woodland areas adjacent to wetlands. It likes to hide in burrows or under mucky vegetation at the water's edge.

Variations

Some individuals have 2 black dorsal stripes. Coloration varies from dark olive green to chocolate brown to almost black.

Similar species

Very similar to the striped swampsnake (*Liodytes alleni*), which would only overlap in northern Florida and southern Georgia. It could also be confused with the black swampsnake (*Liodytes pygaea*), plain-bellied watersnake (*Nerodia erythrogaster*), or Graham's crayfish snake (*Regina grahamii*).