Cutie

After a few weeks of striking out on some really cool herps this afternoon went some of the way to making up for it. As I went to feed the cat, I found this guy hiding out under the food bowl (our cat is afraid of most things that move, including crickets and cockroaches but even in light of this I thought the snake was pushing his luck a little too much). This is not Alsophis portoricensis (anegadae?), a snake species we've featured before photographed from range but never up close, its the cloesely related Arrhyton exiguum:

Since I'd grabbed this guy I took the opportunity to introduce him to my girlfriend who deemed him cute enough to be held.

After which he decided to accessorise the bracelet of my watch for a while.

and generally hang out amidst my fingers. Aww.

Edited 10/06/08 to correct the id - more tomorrow on the id error and this species.