48 



THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



Map 10. Ohio locality records and general 

 range of the Smooth Green Snake, Opheo- 

 dr\}5 veinalis. 



cannot be defined. One was found beneath a flat stone, another was crawling 

 in a ditch and a third was sunning itself on a pile of cut grass. Specimens 

 were reported as being seen on grape vines and rose bushes and in open grassy 

 meadows. Only one smooth green snake was taken on a regular field trip. 

 The others of recent date were turned in by farmers, correspondents and other 

 interested persons, but all lacked adequate habitat notes. Collecting dates 

 were scattered from April to September, inclusive. Most specimens were in- 

 offensive, but one captive raised the forward portion of its body from the 

 ground, held its mouth open and struck repeatedly when teased. 



The food of this species as reported by Surface (1906, 165) includes 

 snails, spiders and such insects as crickets, grasshoppers, Lepidoptera, meas- 

 uring worm, red ants, ground beetles, etc. The same authority also records 

 a striped salamander, but 73% of the total food he removed from the stomachs 

 of specimens consisted of insects. Other records are grasshoppers (Atkinson, 

 1901, 148); insects (Ditmars 1936, 280). Blanchard (1933, 507) states that 

 young green snakes were "observed to eat spiders, ant pupae, smooth, green 

 lepidopterous larvae and grubs, and to refuse a pentatomid bug, ants, slugs, 



