fieldherping.eu

They don't come much rarer than that, Liam

That one I found today









Scales pic

If no one found young melanistic or picturata grass snake, I suppose that picturata morph is intermediate state between normally colored young snake and melanistic old one. Presumably melanism comes with age- like among Trachemys spp. for example. On the other hand it is told to be adaptation- better sunlight absorption or/and industrial melanism- http://nature.uni-plovdiv.bg/uploads/be ... Mollov.pdf

I found this one in Helsinki, Finland, last month:

Awsome Thread....I like black Snakes and all those mutation stuff..great thread, thanks for sharing this nice collection of color variations from grasssnakes

More Blacks!!

Found two dark Natrix today.
The first one was the young male again, the starter of this thread.
I found him more than 100 m away from the place where I found him first.
Tried to make some belly shots, but it works not that good.



Later I found a huge, dark and very angry female.
Not a good model, she was striking at me all the time like a cobra.







She was not solid black, more a picturata morph, black with a lot of brown and gray speckling’s, the markings behind the head were dark brown.



I don`t walk on your nerves with the black Natrix the next few Days.
Tomorrow, finally, our vacation starts, 7 Days Tuscany and 5 Days Piemont, no herping, just vacation!!!
I`m thinking about that I don`t take my camera with me for a stress less time!
Let`s what`s happen.