Sonora (snake)

Sonora
Western ground snake (Sonora semiannulata)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: Colubrinae
Genus: Sonora
Baird & Girard, 1853
Type species
Sonora semiannulata
Synonyms
  • Chilomeniscus
  • Chionactis
  • Contia
  • Homalocranium
  • Homalosoma
  • Lamprosoma
  • Ogmius
  • Scolecophis

Sonora is a genus of small harmless colubrid snakes commonly referred to as ground snakes, which are endemic to North America.

Distribution and habitat

Species of the genus Sonora range through central and northern Mexico, and the southwestern United States.

They are sand dwellers.

Species

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Sonora aemula
(Cope, 1879)		filetail ground snake
Sonora annulata
(Baird, 1859)		Colorado Desert shovelnose snakeSE California, Arizona, Baja California
Sonora cincta
(Cope, 1861)		Arizona ground snake, banded burrowing snake, horse snake, red and black ground snake, Sonora ringed snakeUSA (S Arizona), Mexico (N Baja California Sur, W Sonora)
Sonora episcopa
(Kennicott, 1859)		ground snakeUSA (Missouri, N Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, SE Colorado, S/E New Mexico), Mexico (Coahuila)
Sonora fasciata
(Cope, 1892)		variable sand snake, banded sand snakeMexico (Baja California)
Sonora michoacanensis
(Dugès, 1884)		Michoacán ground snakeMexico (Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan; Morelos, Puebla)
Sonora mosaueri
Stickel, 1938		Mosauer's ground snakeMexico (Baja California Sur)
Sonora mutabilis
Stickel, 1943		Michoacán ground snakeMexico (Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, southern Zacatecas, S Sinaloa)
Sonora occipitalis
(Hallowell, 1854)		western shovelnose snakeUSA (SE California, S Nevada, SW Arizona), Mexico (Baja California Norte)
Sonora palarostris
Klauber, 1937		Sonoran shovelnose snakeUSA (S Arizona), Mexico (Sonora)
Sonora savagei
Cliff, 1954		Savage's sand snakeMexico (Baja California)
Sonora semiannulata
Baird & Girard, 1853		western ground snakeUSA (W Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, S Colorado, S Kansas, SW Missouri, SE Utah, California, Arkansas), Mexico (N Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, NW Nuevo León, NE Durango)
Sonora straminea
(Cope, 1860)		variable sand snakeMexico (S Baja California Sur, Sinaloa)
Sonora taylori
(Boulenger, 1894)		Taylor's ground snakeS Texas, adjacent Mexico

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Sonora.

References

  1. 1 2 Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of Cornell University Press. 1,105 pp. (in 2 volumes). ("Genus Chilomeniscus", pp. 116–120; "Genus Sonora", pp. 669–692).
  2. ↑ Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0020-4. (Subfamily Colubrinae, Genus Sonora, p. 324).
  3. 1 2 Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Chilomeniscus savagei, p. 233; Sonora taylori, p. 262).

Further reading