Carphophis amoenus helenae
Midwestern Wormsnake

Rare: known in AR only from Crowley’s Ridge. Small. Fossorial. Uniform brown; grayish-blue during shed cycles. Belly uniform pale pink, extending onto two dorsal scale rows. Species account on iNaturalist

Arkansas Game & Fish Commission
Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019

This species is represented by 20 records from 7 sources: 18 museum (), 0 literature (), 0 research (), and 1 observation (), with 1 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (). It has been museum vouchered for 8 of 75 counties (). Years of collection range from 1934 to 2018.

This species is essentially confined to Crowley’s Ridge. While this ecoregion extends into southeast Missouri, the northernmost recorded locality west of the Mississippi River comes from central Clay County (Trauth et al., 2004, unsourced). Occurrence south of the Marianna gap was not confirmed until two specimens were collected in 2005. Records from the lower White River valley in Arkansas County (FLMNH 48040-48041 from 1980 and FLMNH 50666 from 1981) warrant reexamination to confirm the identifications as C. amoenus helenae versus C. vermis.