Natural History of the Redbelly Snake

During our most recent herpetology optional field trip half of the group had tired themselves out near the end of the day and decided to head towards the nearest road.  This led us to a dirt path we started to walk with a clear concept of how far away the van was.  As various quizzing of plant-life between classmates occurred around me (who has never taken a botany class) my mind wandered around along with my eyes, only sighting something unusual after the rest of the class had stepped over it.  In the middle of the road was a body being eaten by ants, with red all over looking akin to a particularly large worm.  Only the bumps indicating jaws were the only sign this was instead a snake.  After clearing off the ants and calling the rest of the group together we decided to try and identify the corpse, the job could have been particularly difficult due to various injuries presumed to be the cause of death.  However after a brief talk with our menagerie followed by flipping through pages of the field guide, this small snake with a red belly had at least one surprisingly distinct marking.
Warning, graphic images of a crime scene below.

Storeria occipitomaculata, commonly known as the redbelly snake is a nonvenomous colubrid found across the majority of the eastern United States.  Often found in forests or near swamps, these snakes are named appropriately for their typically bright red belly.

While the back of the snake typically has keeled scales and markings along the nape of the neck useful in identification and at times with multiple stripes on the dorsum or a light middorsal stripe (sometimes both), the underside marks these animals as redbellies.  This belly is typically a bright red, but has a range of colors possible including yellow and orange.

Like the other members of the genus Storeria the redbelly eats invertebrates such as worms, slugs, and snails.  The redbelly on average is between 20 and 25 cm, with the record longest coming in at 40 cm.  This one in particular came in at around 22 cm, about the average size, and was around 9 inches in those unites.

After a truck came by to carry us to the class van, and some misleading gestures by the driver of that van as to the identity of the snake we were pleased to hear our hypothesis was proven by a few professionals in this line of work.  Sadly the suspect is still at large for the murder of this redbelly snake, though at least the body was given a burial of several twigs rather than being left on the road for roaming ants to take apart.