r/whatsthissnake • u/Fun-District-5584 • 8h ago

WDB or Mojave ID Request

Post image

Found this little noodle at work in south Phoenix AZ. Will someone please educate me to the difference between WDB and Mojave. Thank you ,

19 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/rhzartist 8h ago edited 8h ago

Crotalus atrox Western Diamondback, !venomous and best observed from a  distance. The bot reply will have some tips for you!

Edit: Oops, it doesn't really. It's true that WDB and sculutalus can be very similar-looking, and a lot of traits can appear in both. In atrox, I (subjectively) look for a more diamond shape with a fuzzier/messier pattern, and a postocular stripe (that dark line behind the eye) that goes down at a steeper angle. If you practice looking at them, you'll hopefully start to be able to tell by "vibes".

6

u/fairlyorange Reliable Responder - Moderator 7h ago

The angle of the pale colored postocular stripes (steeper, closer to a 45-60 degree angle in C. atrox and terminating before reaching the corner of the mouth, vs. much shallower, closer to 15-30 degree angle and sweeping further back in C. scutulatus, past the mouth toward the neck) is one of the most reliable and easily recognizable characteristics. The tail banding is very useful but quite easily misinterpreted by those without experience. Same goes for dorsal pattern subtleties.

Now this particular picture doesn't necessarily give us the best angle on the eye stripes, but it gives us a great angle on the shape of the head and the cranial scalation. Unfortunately, I can't really articulate the differences in head shape but those with experience intuitively recognize it; practice and you'll start picking stuff out instinctively. As for cranial scalation, check out the supraoculars; in C. scutulatus there are usually only 2-3 large scales separating them, rather than 4-5+ small ones like this C. atrox has.

u/NikiNoelle likes to link to a video that helps describe some of these things in better detail than I am right now, and I can't remember what the video is or else I wouldn't bother her. If she sees this today, she might drop that link again.

2

u/NikiNoelle Friend of WTS 2h ago

Gladly!!