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Graham's crayfish snake

Regina grahamii · Snakes · Reptiles

Graham's crayfish snake (Regina grahamii): Medium-sized, dull semiaquatic snake; brown to yellowish-brown above with a broad yellowish-tan stripe along each lower side, sometimes edged by a thin dark line. May show a faint tan stripe down the middle of the back. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Regina grahamii
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Central United States only, per NatureServe: Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas; not listed for Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Medium-sized, dull semiaquatic snake; brown to yellowish-brown above with a broad yellowish-tan stripe along each lower side, sometimes edged by a thin dark line. [1][2]

May show a faint tan stripe down the middle of the back. [1][2]

Chin and throat cream to yellow; belly cream or light yellow with a faint central row of gray or light-brown dots and a dark zigzag along both edges. [1][2]

Adults 18-28 in (occasionally to 47 in). [1][2]

Compared with the northern cottonmouth: The venomous cottonmouth is heavier-bodied with a large chunky head, a facial pit between nostril and eye, a darker body and a light line from eye to mouth corner (Missouri Department of Conservation). [1][2]

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a graham's crayfish snake before you act. Compared with the northern cottonmouth: The venomous cottonmouth is heavier-bodied with a large chunky head, a facial pit between nostril and eye, a darker body and a light line from eye to mouth corner (Missouri Department of Conservation).[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Sluggish streams, river-bottom sloughs, bayous, pond and lake margins, marshes, swamps, rice fields and roadside ditches, often in water-edge vegetation or crayfish burrows. [1][2]

In Missouri it favours the grassy edges of marshes and prairie streams and is absent from the Ozarks. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Feeds mainly, sometimes only, on molting or freshly molted crayfish; also frogs, snails, shrimp, small fish and salamanders. [1][2]

Active spring to early November in Missouri with peaks in April-May and October; nocturnal in hot summer weather, otherwise diurnal or crepuscular. [1][2]

Basks on branches over water in spring and early summer; shelters under rocks or logs and in crayfish burrows, including in winter. [1][2]

Gives birth to live young (litters of 6-39) in July-September. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Central United States only, per NatureServe: Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas; not listed for Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Missouri Department of Conservation · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Missouri Department of Conservation