''Coluber constrictor anthicus'', commonly known as the buttermilk racer, is a subspecies of the

eastern racer The eastern racer (''Coluber constrictor'') is a species of nonvenomous snake in the Family (biology), family Colubridae. The species is Endemism, endemic to North America and Central America. Eleven subspecies, including the nominotypical subspe ...

, a non

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

colubrid Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ev ...

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Description

The buttermilk racer is a thin-bodied snake, capable of attaining a total length of 1.52 m (60 inches). Its color is a unique pattern of

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

s and even sometimes

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

s, flecked with

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

or yellow. Their underside is white or cream-colored.

Geographic range

The buttermilk racer is found only in the

, in southern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and southern and eastern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Common names

Other common names for ''Coluber constrictor anthicus'' include the following: ash snake, blue racer, brown racer, Louisiana black snake, spotted black snake, spotted racer, variegated racer, and white oak racer. Wright, A.H. and A.A. Wright. 1957. ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Comstock. Ithaca and London. 1106 pp. (''Coluber constrictor anthicus'', pp. 136-138, Figure 43., Map 16.)

Behavior

Racers are diurnal, active predators. They are fast moving, and are often quick to bite if handled. They generally eat

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

s, lizards and

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

s, but as juveniles they will also consume various kinds of soft-bodied

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s. They are fairly nervous snakes, and as such, do not typically fare well in captivity. For protection, they release a foul-smelling scent when caught to deter predators. They also thrash around to escape and can unknowingly injure themselves.

References

Herps of Texas: ''Coluber constrictor''
Herper dot com Colubrids Reptiles of the United States Fauna of the Southeastern United States {{Colubrids-stub