Common Wormsnake

The worm snake is a small snake. Adults are 19–28 cm (7.5–11.0 in) in total length, record 34 cm (13 in) . It is brown dorsally, and bright pink ventrally, with the belly color including one or two dorsal scale rows. The dorsal scales are smooth, in 13 rows. It has five upper labials and one postocular. C. amoenus coloration is unpatterned and can be tan to dark brown in color; it has a pointed head, and small, black eyes. It has pinkish ventral pigmentation which extends dorsally onto dorsal scale rows one to two. The tail is short in comparison with its body and ends in an abrupt, spine-like scale. Females are longer than males, but have shorter tails. The head is small, conical and no wider than the neck. Other small, unpatterned brownish snakes, such as earth snakes (genus Virginia) and red-bellied snakes (Storeria occipitomaculata), have keeled body scales and lack the spine-tipped tail. Other ways to distinguish between C. amoenus and other species are that the body scales usually occur in 13 rows and are smooth and pitless, and the anal plate is split. Another snake commonly confused with C. amoenus is the western worm snake (Carphophis vermis), which used to be considered a subspecies of C. amoenus, and has the slight ventral pigmentation extending onto the third body scale row, and a dark gray or gray-violet dorsum. …

It is found in 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, In Mississippi, it is common only in the northeastern part of the state and in the northern and eastern parts of the Short-Leaf Pine Belt. in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee.

The worm snake is a burrower, and is seldom seen. Its annual activity period varies with latitude and elevation. Some have found them active in every month but February on the coastal plain of South Carolina. Farther north, the worm snake is active from March–April to October- November. Few are active above ground in the summer, but a second, lesser period of activity occurs in the fall. To escape overheating or desiccation, it has adopted a fossorial lifestyle and it usually spends most of the year underground or in rotting logs. They are normally found in forests with high leaf litter and canopy cover. They generally remain inactive during extreme temperatures. However, most of their surface activity is positively correlated with very high temperatures. They burrow by working their small, pointed heads into cracks and crevices. Activity periods begin mainly in the late afternoon and early evenings and rarely last more than 12 hours. C. amoenus amoenus does not move much but has been seen traveling 45 m in a 24-hour period. Males travel much farther than females and their diets consist primarily of earthworms, but may also include other soft-bodied invertebrates, such as insect larvae. Predators include other snakes, thrushes, American robins, barn owls, and opossums. Occasionally, road traffic kills C. …

The specific name, amoenus, is Latin for "pleasing, charming" in reference to the snake's temperament. The generic name, Carphophis, translates to "straw snake"