Captain Scarlet

I'm nearly out of floridian snakes from my last trip (which means I need to go back soon!). This was the last species to turn up. I got a hot tip on the exact stretch of road to find these on and sure enough I turned up 3. This is the scarlet snake, Cemophora coccinea, a small snake which spends most of its time under ground or cover but which emerges at night.

The name and indeed the patterning may lead you to mistake it for a Scarlet Kingsnake,

Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides, but it can be distinguished by, among other things, the lack of patterning on its belly. I think the flattened head on this guy (an adaptation for its fossorial lifestyle) is rather cute as is the pink tongue.