Albino Texas Coralsnake (Micrurus tener)

Coralsnakes range through much of the western hemisphere from North America south to considerably southern localities in South America, east of the Andes. They come in a host of patterns and colors – no the old rhyme to decipher coralsnakes from other nonvenomous snakes was never a good idea. Here’s the thing, even in North America, aberrantly colored coralsnakes pose a real problem for folks trying to use that old rhyme. There are melanistic individuals that appear, more or less, black from above... but are still coralsnakes. A famous envenomation in the San Antonio, Texas, area happened with one of these melanistic coralsnakes. Albinos and other color mutations also pose real challenges to the rhyme. In Central and South America, the rule completely falls apart because there are plenty of coralsnakes that don't match the rhyme - some don't even have the colors mentioned in the rhyme. My point – if you don’t know snakes well, don’t handle them – period. There is no reason to handle a snake if you aren’t abundantly familiar with them. Coralsnake envenomations are no joke. This is an albino Texas Coralsnake from just west of Houston, Texas, USA.