Agkistrodon contortrix
Eastern Copperhead

Venomous.  Tan with darker brown hourglass-shaped bands. Bands sometimes thinly bordered with white. Belly mostly patternless, but sometimes with lower spots between bands extending onto belly. Heat-sensing pits. Pupils elliptical. Juveniles with bright yellow tail. Species account on iNaturalist

Species: A. contortrix (Eastern Copperhead) and A. contortrix-laticinctus (Eastern / Broad-Banded Copperhead hybrids)

Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019

This species is represented by 903 records from 41 sources: 669 museum (), 0 literature (), 0 research (), and 179 observation (), with 55 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (). It has been museum vouchered for 70 of 75 counties (), with 3 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1861 to present.

This species occurs statewide. Some hybridization with A. laticinctus () may occur in the southwest corner of the state (Burbrink and Guiher, 2015; Powell et al., 2016), but the extent of this influence is not well established.