Lizard/Snake Confusion

Both Penny Lazauskas cq and Maurice Cullen cq wrote to say that the glass lizard in last weekend's Beacon column was really a rainbow snake and photographer Robert Jeffers, who took the photo on the right, now thinks he agrees.

Either way, Jeffers got a lucky photo. Both the glass lizard, a legless lizard that looks like a snake, and the rainbow snake are rarely seen and live primarily in the the Back Bay/False Cape area of Virginia Beach.

Lazauskas, a naturalist who business is Natures’ Calling specializes in herpetology, and leads tours at the Great Dismal Swamp.  Find her at:  WWW.Naturescalling.org

She said the critter’s lateral lines were so red looking that it looked more like a colorful rainbow snake. She also noted that rainbow snake was nocturnal unlike a glass lizard.

And Jeffers took his photo early one morning after spending the night nesting sitting a loggerhead sea turtle nest at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Cullen, who teaches science at Virginia Beach Middle school, said it was a rainbow snake, rarely seen, but is common around Back Bay.

“The raimbow snake and it's close relative, the mud snake, will thrash about,” Cullen noted, “and actually try to stab the handler with its tail that ends in a somewhat sharp point.”

He wondered if that gave rise to the old wive's tail of "stinging snakes".

Robert Jeffers agreed that he thought he had misidentified the critter after seeing photos of a rainbow snake. On the other hand Jeffers still wonders a bit because of the critter’s un-snake-like head and neck.

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