Is this a mutation or do they just look like this when they molt?
Juveniles of four different species of Nerodia observed essentially syntopically (within ~100 m of each other).
For the dorsal photo: the heads (in the holder's right hand) from top to bottom: N. rhombifer (Diamondback Watersnake), N. fasciata (Broad-banded Watersnake), N. erythrogaster (Yellow-bellied Watersnake), and N. sipedon (Midland / Common Watersnake). Looking at the bodies just to the right of the thumb of the left hand, the order from top to bottom is: N. fasciata (Broad-banded Watersnake), N. erythrogaster (Yellow-bellied Watersnake), N. rhombifer (Diamondback Watersnake), and N. sipedon (Midland / Common Watersnake).
For the ventral photo, the order is: leftmost: N. sipedon (Midland / Common Watersnake), then N. rhombifer (Diamondback Watersnake), front right is N. fasciata (Broad-banded Watersnake), and back right is N. erythrogaster (Yellow-bellied Watersnake).
The second photo shows a comparison between Acris gryllus (left) from this location & an A. blanchardi (right) from west of the Mississippi River (posted as a separate observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39518139). The longer legs and more pointed snout of gryllus are fairly clear in the comparison.
One individual is shown here, but numerous individuals of both sexes were active in the open grass with some shrubs in pine savannah.
Hundreds of these disgusting little things inside a dead Plain-Bellied Water Snake, and definitely the cause of death. One of them bit me, and now I’m freaking out. I can handle any snake, spider, insect, but parasitic worms are the one thing I absolutely cannot handle!
masses cause by histo, as diagnosed via PCR by University of Washington
on beach of nearshore island. Barnacles are a separate observation, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19642445