rhizo, It must be over thirty years since I've been bitten by more than a mosquito. I guess I'm curious to a point and from a distance. [g] Okay, I found this about Bats.... Katydids and Bats Crickets are not the only animals that inadvertently signal to another species. A close cousin of the field cricket, the greener, longer-legged katydid, faces a similar challenge. Instead of attracting the female he bargained for when he launched into full voice, a male katydid may find himself becoming a meal for a bat. A repetitive staccato trill made up of many frequencies proves easy to locate, no matter what species produces it. This is, of course, the purpose of the male katydidÂs trill. But in bat-infested Panama, katydids change their tune. They sing a higher-pitched song, with a narrower frequency range, much harder to locate. They also sing a lot less. In an experimental situation, loud, enthusiastic katydids caged with hungry bats survived less than a minute. Shyer, quieter males lasted more than half an hour before becoming bat bait. But if males must remain quiet to survive, how can they attract Ms. Right? A quiet, infrequent trill can bring a female into the vicinity, perhaps to the same plant. The quieter males then complete their attractive act with a silent dance so enthusiastic they shake the leaf theyÂre standing on. Females detect the dance through the plant, locating the source of both the beautiful voice and the swiveling hips.

"I've had no experience with queen snakes." I understand, and I think that this is also true of the others who are calling it a Queen Snake. For Mike and I, who have each seen many, many Queen Snakes and many, many Gartersnakes, it is painfully obvious that this is a Gartersnake. "that lighting and color in photography can be misleading" I see your point very well. But...the camera is not playing tricks here. It shows a dorsal stripe and red banding because they do indeed exist. "...and never seen such a patternless species whether in shed or not" But which is more likely, a Gartersnake with some pattern lacking? or a Queen Snake with a Garter-esque head, dorsal stripe, red-banding, and found far from water? "That being said, I can't be sure of the species." That's really great to hear someone say. I'm glad that someone can admit that they're not "100% sure" it's a Queen Snake, because it is not. This is a Gartersnake. -Todd ...oh, and to keep it interesting, here's a real Queen Snake found a few days ago in western Indiana.

Interesting one. Juvenile snakes can be a lot of fun to identify because there can be very similar patterns among juveniles before the patterns diverge between species among adults. The Black Rat Snake and the Western Fox Snake are a great example of this and both are found in East Central Indiana. While telling adults of the two species apart is no problem, the juveniles look very similar. I think it's a juvenile black rat snake. The belly pattern is certainly a classic fox snake belly pattern but the belly pattern is also consistent with a juvenile black rat snake pattern (juvenile black rats tend to have more of a belly pattern than the adults and there is variability in belly patterns of young black rat snakes). The particular shape of the arrow on the head is more classic juvenile black rat snake. The nuances are subtle, but I think on balance the evidence weighs more toward juvenile black rat snake than juvenile western fox snake. I suppose the professionals would count belly scales to make a final determination if they had the snake in hand, but I think there is enough in the picture to take a very good guess. My guess is juvenile black rat snake. Thanks for a fun one to try to identify!

Beng, thanks for giving me something else to think about. Looks like C. sericea has white pith, and C. amomum has brown. My pic is pretty blurry but it is white. Here’s a pic of a branch I pulled down that show the reddish tint: Bark on the trunk is shown here: So it looks more like C. sericea at this point. I guess the berries confirm without doubt. Most are growing as single trunks about 3’ wide by 10’ tall.