Title: Bulletin
Identifier: bulletin2819611963illi (find matches)
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Illinois. Natural History Survey Division
Subjects: Natural history; Natural history
Publisher: Urbana, State of Illinois, Dept. of Registration and Education, Natural History Survey Division
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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222 Ii.i.iNois Natural History Survey Bulletin Vol. 28. Art. I
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Fig. 209.—An adult Lampropeltis triangulum syspila from Union County, Illinois. The groundcolor is light gray or white; the blotches are bright red, heavily margined with black. No geographic variation within Illinois has been discerned for syspila except for in- tergradation with triangulum, which has been described under that subspecies. Individual variation in a sample of 14 specimens of syspila is as follows: ventrals 197 to 213 (average 202.5), tail length 11.9 to 14.1 (average 13.0) per cent of total length. Variation in scale rows and head squamation has been summarized under L. t. triangulum. The dorsal blotches in 14 specimens at hand extend to the edges of the ventrals or onto the first or second scale row. Forty-three per cent of the specimens possess a complete row of lateral spots al- ternating with the dorsal saddles; the others possess an incomplete row. An extreme case of the latter pattern is found in a Jasper County specimen in which the lateral spots are on only the posterior third of the body. Habits.—This brightly colored snake is similar in habits to the eastern milk snake. There is some evidence that it is at least par- tially nocturnal. Individuals have been found in rotten logs or under bark of stumps. Feeding and reproductive habits are pre- sumably similar to those of the eastern milk snake. Illinois Distribution.—The red milk snake, one of the most colorful of the Illi- nois reptiles, occurs in wooded regions of southern Illinois north to the Shelbyville Moraine in the eastern part of the state and to Calhoun County in the western, fig. 208. More individuals have been collected under flat rocks on wooded or grassy hillsides of the Lower Mississippi Border division than elsewhere in the state, but even there syspila is quite uncommon. Although undocumented by specimens, published records for the following localities are believed valid and are indicated on the distribution map by hollow symbols: Cal- houn County: Hardin (Blanchard 1921); Jackson County: Murphysboro (Ditmars 1945); Pulaski County: Grand Chain (Blanchard 1921); Richland County: (Cope 1888) ; St. Clair County: (Hurter 1893); Wabash County: Mount Carmel (Yarrow 1882a).

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