Micrurus multifasciatus Many-banded Coral Snake
El Valle de Antón, Coclé province, PanamaJanuary 10, 2014
Many-banded Coral Snake (Micrurus multifasciatus) Many-banded Coral Snake (Micrurus multifasciatus)
Lorrie Smith, Mario Urriola, and I were out herping at night when Mario spotted a salamander in the leaf litter. Lorrie and I got a brief glimpse of it as it decided to squirm down into the leaves. Mario was excited because salamanders are not common in the area, so he started picking leaves off the ground to see if he could uncover the salamander. I joined in eagerly, and pretty soon we had cleared a large area of leaves, with no sign of the salamander. But we really wanted to find that salamander, so we kept grabbing leaves. We never did see that salamander again, but I uncovered this beautiful, tiny, and venomous coral snake. At this point, Lorrie claimed that this was why she had chosen not to participate in the bare-handed digging about in the leaf litter.
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