Although it is just a combination of "white, black, red and yellow", mistaking the colors can bring fatal disasters!

Attention! There are many pictures of snakes in the whole article~

Can simply mistaking the color of a snake lead to death? This is not an exaggeration, because it is related to a "secret" in the snake world...

In the United States, there are several species of snakes that wear the same clothes.

Snakes No. 1, 2, and 3 wear the same clothes

Snake No. 1

Eastern coral snake (Wikimedia Commons)

Scientific Name: Micrurus fulvius (Eastern coral snake, American coral snake, common coral snake)

Distribution: Mainly distributed in the southern United States, such as Carolina, Florida Peninsula, southern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, southeastern Louisiana, etc.

Habitat: Can adapt to a variety of environments, such as high or low-lying forests, savannas, sandy ridges or stream bottoms.

Size: The total length including the tail is generally 46-76cm, but two specimens exceeding 1.2m in length were found in Florida in 1958 and 1996. The tail of a male eastern coral snake is longer than that of a female eastern coral snake, but the total length of a female coral snake is longer than that of a male eastern coral snake.

Danger: The Eastern Coral Snake is a member of the family Cobra and is a highly venomous snake. Its venom can cause slurred speech, visual disturbances, muscle paralysis, and eventually respiratory failure in humans.

Records of human bites and deaths are relatively rare. There were two cases of bites and deaths in the 1950s. With the application of effective anti-venom serum in the 1960s, the mortality rate has remained at a low level below 20%.

In 2006, a person bitten by an eastern coral snake died within hours of being bitten because he did not seek medical care in time. Although the venom of the eastern coral snake is not one of the most venomous snakes, it is still a very scary snake.

Snake No. 2

Scarlet kingsnake (Photo by Glenn Bartolotti)

Scientific Name: Lampropeltis elapsoides (Scarlet Kingsnake)

Distribution: Mainly distributed in the southeastern United States, throughout Georgia and the Florida Peninsula.

Habitat: Open forests, savannas, farmlands, suburban areas with human activities, and in spring, locals often find them in swimming pools.

Size: The adult scarlet king snake is about 40-50cm long. The largest individual recorded was a 76.2cm long scarlet king snake found in Jonesboro.

Danger: The scarlet king snake is a member of the genus Lampropeltis and, like most king snakes, is non-venomous. Scarlet king snakes are secretive and spend most of their time underground, sometimes under dead bark or in dead logs, and usually come out at night and after a heavy rain.

Snake No. 3

Scarlet snake (Photo by Glenn Bartolotti)

Scientific Name: Cemophora coccinea (Scarlet Snake)

Distribution range: Mainly distributed in the coastal plains and Piedmont regions of the southeastern United States, southeastern Texas, eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, New Jersey, central Missouri, and even the entire Florida Peninsula.

Habitat: Scarlet snakes are extremely good burrowers, so they prefer open forest areas with sandy soil, ground litter, and organic debris.

Size: The total length of an adult scarlet snake, including the tail, is approximately 36-66cm.

Danger: Non-venomous snakes rarely bite when picked up by humans, but they do emit a foul odor. The docile scarlet snake is threatened in many parts of the United States due to habitat loss, illegal capture, roadkill, and direct killing.

What are the aspects that are easy to confuse when wearing the same clothes?

▼Color confusion

You will be surprised to find that the author did not introduce their color characteristics. Hey, this is the first confusing feature of these three "same-dress" snakes. They all have ring-shaped color blocks on their bodies, and these color blocks are either black, red, white, or yellow. (Slashes indicate none)

Black, white, red, and yellow, red, yellow, black, white, black, yellow, white, red, white, red, black, and yellow... Oh my god, how can we distinguish them? Don't worry, let's record the color blocks on them in the form of a table.

▼The confusion of distribution range

It's not enough that the colors are hard to tell apart, but what's even scarier is that these snakes tend to congregate in the same place. From the distribution maps of the three snakes below, we can clearly see that at least in several states along the southeastern coast, such as Florida, the distribution of the three snakes overlaps.

Eastern coral snake range (by Howard Morland)

Scarlet Kingsnake Range (VHS)

Scarlet snake range (SREL)

▼The confusion of habitat

There's nothing to worry about if they live in one state. What if some snakes like to stay in forests and some like to stay in places with few plants? Can't we tell which type of snake it is based on their habitat?

Let’s leave this beautiful thing to our dreams... From the above introductions to the three snakes wearing the same clothes, we can find at least two common ecological environments that they like: 1. Forest; 2. Savanna.

Sorry, let me sort it out. The current situation is that these three snakes "have confusing colors, the same distribution range, similar habitats..."

▼The confusion of body shape

You can take more! The smart town test takers may have discovered that the size differences between these three snakes are not that big!

Qu Shiyihui

Combining the general body length and the largest individual record, the total body length of an adult eastern coral snake is generally no more than 80cm; but the total body length of an adult scarlet king snake can be close to 80cm (76.2cm). Although the adult scarlet snake is relatively smaller, the largest individual can reach nearly 70cm (66cm), and the body length of scarlet king snakes and scarlet snakes generally falls between 40-60cm. The body sizes of the three snakes that "wear the same clothes" overlap to a great extent.

The final dilemma: These three snakes have:

1. Easily confused colors

2. Same distribution range

3. Similar habitats

4. The size difference is not too big

Do you think: It would be a miracle if they can tell them apart? But think about the indigenous people living in the habitats of these three snakes? If they don't come up with a way to distinguish these snakes, then someone will have to do it, right?

Life-saving nursery rhymes

According to Peterson's Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, written by Powell R, Conant R, Collins JT and other scholars, in some areas where these three kinds of snakes are distributed, such as Arizona and Carolina, local people have been taught a life-saving nursery rhyme by their elders since childhood to distinguish these three kinds of snakes. The original content is roughly as follows:

"Red next to black, safe from attack; red next to yellow, you're a dead fellow,"

"Red touching black, friend of Jack; red touching yellow, you're a dead fellow"

"Red and yellow kill a fellow"

The author roughly translated it and compiled it into a relatively rhyming Chinese nursery rhyme:

Red is next to black, don't panic.

Red is next to Yellow, a murderer.

Red and black are neighbors, and they are friends.

If red is next to yellow, life will be lost.

"Red next to black, don't panic; red next to black, they are friends" means that if the "red" of this snake is next to the "black", don't panic, this snake should be non-venomous and you can be friends with it (it's just a statement relative to highly venomous snakes). Let's take a look at the non-venomous scarlet king snake. Is red next to black? Yes, it is non-venomous.

Scarlet kingsnake (Photo by Glenn Bartolotti)

Schematic diagram of the "color blocks" on the body surface of the scarlet king snake

Let’s take a look at the scarlet snake, which is also non-venomous. It is still red next to black and is non-venomous.

Scarlet snake (Photo by Glenn Bartolotti)

Schematic diagram of the "color blocks" on the surface of a scarlet snake

“Red next to yellow, a murderer; red next to yellow, life lost” means that if the snake is red next to yellow, then do not provoke it, leave quickly, because it is a highly poisonous snake that can take your life.

Let's take a look at the highly venomous Eastern Coral Snake. Sure enough, the red and yellow are next to each other, so don't get close to it!

Eastern coral snake (Photo by Norman Benton)

Schematic diagram of the "color blocks" on the body surface of the eastern coral snake

Although nursery rhymes are magical and useful, they are, after all, the result of the experience of local residents. They are bound to have omissions. For example, this nursery rhyme is only applicable to snakes in the United States. Do not use it as a "golden rule" to identify snakes in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

In addition, wildlife conservationist Shane Townsend also observed a unique behavior of the highly venomous eastern coral snake: if you get too close to it, it will suck air into its anus, making a warning sound that sounds like a pop. If you hear this "death sound", leave quickly!

【Knowledge link】No. 4 Snake wearing the same clothes

California kingsnake (Photo by Dawn Ellner)

Scientific Name: Lampropeltis zonata (California Kingsnake)

Range: This snake is endemic to western North America, and gets its name from the fact that its main range is in California.

Habitat: Mainly distributed in mountainous areas.

Size: Adult California King Snake is about 51-127cm long

Danger: Non-toxic

Distribution range of California king snake (red area)

Regarding this No. 4 snake, since its geographical distribution is quite different from the first three snakes, it will not be included in the comparison, but we can still see if it can be applied to the nursery rhyme written by residents of the southeastern United States.

The colors of the California King Snake are mainly black, white and red. Some individuals also have yellow blocks, but the yellow and red are not adjacent to each other, while the black and white are adjacent, which is in line with the "life-saving nursery rhyme" in the southeastern United States.

References

[1]Campbell, Jonathan A.; Lamar, William W. (2004). The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere.

[2]Archis, Jennifer (1 May 2018). "Is the future already here? The impact of climate change on the distribution of the eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius)"

[3]"Coral Snakes: Colors, Bites, Farts & Facts". Live Science. 16 December 2014.

[4]Norris, Robert L.; Pfalzgraf, Robert R.; Laing, Gavin. (March 2009). "Death following coral snake bite in the United States – First documented case (with ELISA confirmation of envenomation) in over 40 years". Toxicon. 53 (6)

[5]Armstrong, Michael P.; Frymire, David; Zimmerer, Edmund J. (December 2001), "Analysis of sympatric populations of Lampropeltis triangulum syspila and Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides, in western Kentucky and adjacent Tennessee with relation to the taxonomic status of the scarlet kingsnake", Journal of Herpetology, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 35 (4)

[6]Gibbons, Whit; Dorcas, Mike (2005). Snakes of the Southeast. University of Georgia Press.

[7]Powell R, Conant R, Collins JT (2016). Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Fourth Edition. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[8]Boulenger, GA 1894. Catalog of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).

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Author: Qu Shiyi, Master of History, Wuhan University,

Shang and Zhou dynasty archaeology direction.

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo