Yesterday night I was driving in well preserved hilly areas of the Alessandria province in northern Italy, searching for a "Will o' the Wisp" light, with a friend of mine, while I saw a small snake on the asphalt of the main, yet small, road. It was 22,30 and the temperature (measured by the thermometer of my friend's car) was approximately 17 °C.
The snake was a newborn female Zamenis longissimus.
We saw also many fireflies and some luminous unkown (to me) insects, which I suppose to be, maybe, larval stages of firefly.... (?) Their light was continuous (not intermittent as in fireflies) and of a light green colour.
Here is one of those luminous insects
Unfortunately we saw no "Will o' the Wisp" lights...
But my idea is now the following: to list here the european snake species we've observed "active" at night, in total dark (except the light of the stars or the moon).
I begin with my experience:
Z. situla: some/many (I mean =>3) specimens observed active at night
Z.longissimus: some/many (=>3) specimens observed active at night
T.fallax: but this is well known... 3 specimens of the 4 I've observed were found at night, and only one, under a stone, during daytime
C.girondica: some/many specimens (surely more than 3) observed at night, one of which in October (here below is the picture of this specimen) in Oltrepò Pavese, not far from my hometown
N.natrix: at least 1-2 specimens observed active at night
N.maura: at least 1-3 specimens observed active at night
N.tessellata: I remember well one specimen on an asphalted road in a late afternoon/early evening, but I cannot remember specimens active in total dark (anyway I'm pretty sure they do it too, just as the two other Natrix species)
H.viridiflavus: never observed specimens active during the night, but my brother (who knows this species and some other snake species very well) met one subadult specimen crossing a road during the night in Tuscany
E.quatuorlineata: never observed specimens at night
Malpolon sp.: never in the night
Vipera ammodytes: one specimen, a male, observed crossing a road in the night in spring in Greece
Vipera aspis: one female (yellow and beautiful) specimen seen crossing a hill road in the Oltrepò Pavese (Pavia) in a summer night