Pores/sloughing

[adamanteus]

Hi Guys. As most of you will already know, the sloughing (shedding) process is facilitated through the secretion of a fluid between the old skin and the new skin underneath, which causes the old skin to seperate from the new one. It is the presence of this fluid between the two skins which makes the snake appear 'blue' when it is coming up to slough. The fluid is re-absorbed into the skin just prior to the actual slough, that's why the snake 'clears' again before shedding it's skin. The fluid is forced out between the old and the new skins from paired pores called 'apical pits' (two in every single scale on the snakes body). These pores are generally invisible to the naked eye.......
Anyway, quite by chance I got this photo tonight, I thought I'd share it with you all, for those of you who have never seen/noticed these paired pores before.



The snake is an adult female T.e.vagrans, the pores can clearly be seen at the distal end of each scale (looks like two little dots on each scale).

[gregmonsta]

Wow, nice one ... think I've noticed them on Penelope before

[ssssnakeluvr]

very interesting! nice shot!!!

[guidofatherof5]

Never seen it before and didn't know anything about it. Thanks for making me smarter, James.

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow neat shot! thanks for posting that!

[count dewclaw]

Oh, so those aren't just dots of color on the scales.... Guess I should have been more curious when I saw them. Thanks for sharing the info and photo.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

awesome photo James! I have seen them on a few snakes before... I always knew what they were but i never thought to look at all my snakes and see which ones I can see them on and to really study them! now maybe Ill just have to!

[prattypus]

That's an attention to detail, to be sure!

[Thamnophis]

James, i've been working with snakes for over 35 years, but I have never noticed this. I will take a look (with my reading glasses on my nose).
Thanks for sharing.

Are these always visible, or only during the sloughing process?

[Sid]

Thank you for the information, James. Very interesting.