De Kay's brown snake facts for kids
Quick facts for kids De Kay's brown snake |
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| brown snake or De Kay's snake | |
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Storeria
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dekayi
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For other species commonly referred to as the brown snake, see brown snake.
The brown snake, also known as De Kay's snake, is a small snake. Its scientific name is Storeria dekayi. It belongs to the Colubridae family, which includes many common snakes. There are seven different types, or subspecies, of this snake.
Contents
Where Brown Snakes Live
Brown snakes live in many places. You can find them in parts of Southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada. They also live across most of the eastern United States. Their range extends south into Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. It's possible they also live in El Salvador.
What Brown Snakes Look Like
Brown snakes are usually brown or gray on their backs. They often have a lighter stripe down the middle. This stripe is usually bordered by small black spots. Their bellies are lighter, often light brown or pink. They have tiny black dots at the edges of their belly scales.
Adult brown snakes are usually less than 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. The longest one ever recorded was about 49 centimeters (19.3 inches) long. They have scales on their backs that have a ridge, like a keel on a boat. This makes them feel rough. They do not have a special scale called a loreal scale, which is found in some other snakes.
Types of Brown Snakes (Subspecies)
There are seven recognized subspecies of the brown snake. Each one has a slightly different name. The original type of brown snake is called the "nominotypical subspecies."
- Storeria dekayi anomala Dugès, 1888
- Storeria dekayi dekayi (Holbrook, 1836) – This is the northern brown snake.
- Storeria dekayi limnetes Anderson, 1961 – This is known as the marsh brown snake.
- Storeria dekayi temporalineata Trapido, 1944
- Storeria dekayi texana Trapido, 1944 – This is the Texas brown snake.
- Storeria dekayi tropica Cope, 1885
- Storeria dekayi wrightorum Trapido, 1944 – This is the midland brown snake.
Sometimes, a subspecies name has a person's name in parentheses. This means that the snake was first described under a different group name.
How Brown Snakes Have Babies
Brown snakes are special because they give birth to live young. They don't lay eggs like many other snakes. This is called being ovoviviparous. They become old enough to have babies when they are two or three years old.
Mating happens in the spring. This is after the snakes wake up from their winter sleep, called brumation. Female brown snakes can have anywhere from 3 to 41 babies at a time. The babies are usually born in late summer.
What Brown Snakes Eat
Brown snakes love to eat slugs, snails, and earthworms. They have special jaws that help them pull snails right out of their shells. Sometimes, they might accidentally eat other tiny creatures. This happens if a bug like a woodlouse or millipede is stuck to a slug they are eating.
Who Eats Brown Snakes
Brown snakes are small, so many animals hunt them. Larger snakes will eat them. Big frogs and toads also prey on them. Many birds and mammals also hunt brown snakes. This includes common animals like cats, dogs, and weasels.
Where Their Names Come From
The scientific name dekayi honors an American zoologist named James Ellsworth De Kay. He found the first brown snake specimen on Long Island, New York. The first part of the name, Storeria, honors another zoologist, David Humphreys Storer.
The brown snake is unique in North America. Both parts of its scientific name honor people. This is called a "double honorific." The name wrightorum for one of the subspecies honors a husband and wife team of American herpetologists, Albert Hazen Wright and Anna Allen Wright.
See also
In Spanish: Storeria dekayi para niños
Species Storeria dekayi at The Reptile Database
