Big Bend Blackhead Snake vs. Southwestern Blackhead Snake

They share the rocky slopes of the Big Bend and the Trans-Pecos. A: Jet black, running 3 to 5 scale rows behind the big head plates onto the neck, ending in a sharp, straight or rounded edge in the Big Bend Blackhead Snake; black to dark brown, only 1 to 2 scale rows behind the head plates, often edged behind by a faint pale collar or row of pale dots in the Southwestern Blackhead Snake. B: Heavily smudged dark brown to black in the Big Bend Blackhead Snake; pale white, cream or light yellow in the Southwestern Blackhead Snake. The Big Bend Blackhead Snake is also bigger (8 to 18 in against up to 9).

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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