74 Walter E. Meshaka, Jr. 



Condition of follicles was staged according to Kofron (1979). I 

 estimated clutch size by counting enlarged follicles or conceptuses. 

 Relative clutch mass, the quotient of clutch mass divided by the sum 

 of the clutch mass and the female body mass (Seigel and Fitch 1984), 

 was measured in females with fully developed conceptuses. All specimens 

 are located in the Archbold Biological Station vertebrate collection. 



RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 



Eighteen snakes (3 males, 15 females) were collected during 22.5 

 hours of searching. Snout-vent lengths (SVL) of males collected in 

 March (n = 1) and June (n = 2) were 23.0, 25.0, and 27.5 mm, respectively. 

 Snout-vent lengths and clutch parameters of females are summarized in 

 Table 1. Estimated clutch size was not significantly correlated with 

 SVL (r = 0.31, P>0.05). 



Table 1. Snout-vent lengths (SVL) and clutch parameters of Storeria 

 dekayi collected from one location in Highlands County, Florida, 1990. 



Relative 

 Clutch 

 Date Female SVL Clutch Size Mass Neonate SVL (cm) 



6.3 + 0.306 



7.7 + 0.500 



8.4 + 0.097 



17 March 



24.6 



7 





17 March 



21.8 



7 





17 May 



26.0 



12 



0.400 



25 May 



28.0 



spent 





29 May 



24.3 



8 



0.361 



31 May 1 



25.3 



9 





8 June 



26.0 



spent 





8 June 



29.0 



11 





14 June 



28.0 



10 



0.340 



21 June 



27.5 



5 





21 June 



27.5 



10 





24 June 



26.5 



8 





3 July 



33.0 



9 



23 July 



26.0 



5 





24 July 



28.5 



10 





31 July 



25.3 



9 





X 



26.8 



8.5 



0.367 



SD 



2.55 



2.15 



0.030 



Range 



21.8-33.0 



5-12 



0.340-0.400 



n 



15 



13 



3 



1 Denotes a specimen collected in 1992 from the same site. Data not 

 analyzed with 1990 sample. 



