As their common names imply, most snakes of the genus Storeria are a variant of brown in color. The brown can vary depending on locale, to be almost a brick red in color, to nearly black. They sometimes have a lighter-colored stripe down the center of the back, and small black blotches along the body, and just behind the head. The underside is usually lighter brown-colored, yellow, or in the case of the redbelly snake, reddish in color. They rarely grow beyond 13 in (33 cm) in total length (including tail).
One of the best means of identification is by scalation. The dorsal scales are keeled, the head has no loreal scale, and the postnasal scale touches the preocular scale. So, only two scales are between the nasal opening and the eye. Sexually mature males will reach a SVL of 118 mm and females will reach 126 mm.[4]
Within their ranges, brown snakes are very commonly found species of snake. They are most frequently found under leaf litter or debris piles, and are sometimes turned up during gardening. They will also be found under rocks, along riversides, and ravines. They are a species that tends to stay near moist environments that have high amounts of earthworm beds.[5] They consume a variety of invertebrate prey, including earthworms, snails and slugs. Their only means of defense are flattening of the body and excretion from the anal scent glands.[6][7] Brown snakes give birth to live young.[2]
^Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. 1,105 pp. (in two volumes). (Genus Storeria, pp. 696-697).
^ abcErnst, Carl H. (2012). "Storeria ". Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (900): 900.1–900.14.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. (Genus Storeria, p. 255).
^Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. (Genus Storeria, pp. 227-230).
^Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. ISBN0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN0-395-19977-8 (paperback). (Genus Storeria, p. 153).
Baird SF, Girard C (1853). Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part I.—Serpents. Washington, District of Columbia: Smithsonian Institution. xvi + 172 pp. (Storeria, new genus, p. 135).
Powell R, Conant R, Collins JT (2016). Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Fourth Edition. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. xiv + 494 pp., 47 plates, 207 figures. ISBN978-0-544-12997-9. (Genus Storeria, p. 423, Figure 192).
Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi ) Species account from the Savanna River Ecology Laboratory Herpetology Program (University of Georgia). Accessed April 6, 2014.
