The eastern worm snake (Carphophis amoenus amoenus) is a subspecies of the worm snake, Carphophis amoenus, a nonvenomous colubrid endemic to the Eastern Woodlands region of North America. The species' range extends from southwest Massachusetts, south to southern Alabama, west to Louisiana and north to Illinois. This species is common in the ecotone between woodlands and wetlands. It may also be found in grasslands adjacent to woodlands. Though this snake can be abundant in parts of its range, it is rarely seen because of its fossorial lifestyle. When not underground, C. a. amoenus resides mostly under rocks, logs and leaf litter, or burrowed within rotting woody debris. This snake is perfectly safe to pick up, as it cannot bite, but may produce a foul-smelling excretion.
Description
C. amoenus is a small snake. Adults are in total length, with a record length of . The 13 rows of dorsal scales are smooth and glossy. It has five upper labials and one postocular scale. C. amoenus is unpatterned and can be either brown or dark brown with a reddish belly. It has pinkish ventral pigmentation which extends onto dorsal scale rows one to two. The tail is short in comparison with its body and ends in a spine-like scale. This spine is not sharp enough to pierce skin. Females are longer than males, but have shorter tails. The head is small, conical and no wider than the neck. The eyes are reduced and black. This snake can live up to 4 years in the wild.
C. amoenus can be distinguished from the western worm snake (Carphophis vermis), by its less vibrant dorsal and ventral coloration and lack of ventral pigmentation on the third body scale row. Other small, unpatterned brownish snakes which may be confused with C. amoenus, such as earth snakes (genus Virginia) and red-bellied snakes (Storeria occipitomaculata), have keeled dorsal scales and lack the spine-tipped tail. The southeastern crown snake (Tantilla coronata) has 15 midbody scale rows, a dark head, and a dark collar. The worm snake diet is mostly carnivorous, feeding on, in some areas, strictly earthworms and in others opportunistically eating slugs and other creatures that they can fit into their mouths.
General description and taxonomy
There are two subspecies of Carphophis amoenus: Carphophis amoenus amoenus and Carphophis amoenus helenae. Carphophis amoenus amoenus, the eastern worm snake, is found from Rhode Island, southwestern Massachusetts, and southeastern New York south to South Carolina, northern Georgia, and central Alabama. The two subspecies can be distinguished by the internasal and prefrontal scales, which are unfused in C. a. amoenus and fused in C. a. helanae. No gular scales occur between the posterior chin shields. Each maxilla has 9–12 small teeth. The single hemipenis has a forked sulcus spermaticus and three large basal spines. Juveniles are darker than adults, with the dorsum changing from dark brown to tan, and the venter from dark pink to pale pink as individuals become larger.
Geographic range
It is found in southern Arizona, southern Connecticut, southwestern Massachusetts, southeastern New York, New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, eastern West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, northern Georgia and Alabama, and in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is currently protected as threatened in Massachusetts and as a species of special concern in Rhode Island. In a study eastern worm snakes showed no homing ability, and on average did not travel more than 125 meters throughout its home range.