Storeria dekayi                                                          Photo Alan Cressler ©

These small (7-10 inch), slender snakes can be found throughout most of Florida. The body color varies from gray to brown to a speckled cinnamon, but the sides are usually marked with a row of small, dark spots. A distinguishing feature of the Florida brown snake is a wide, light-colored collar that crosses the back of the head. There is a brown spot below the eye and the belly is tan or pinkish with dark spots along the edges.

Brown snakes live in bottomland hardwoods, floodplains and creek bottoms. These snakes are burrowers and can be found beneath logs or other litter on the forest floor. Their diet is largely earthworms and slugs, but they also eat larval insects and other small snakes.

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