Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering...are there any South American Pits? or are they like the common King...strictly North American?

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Michael Enriquez

Pits are NA only.

Pines in the East, Bulls are central and Gophers to the West

I think Mexico is the furthest south Pituophis occur. I could be wrong but I have never heard of any Pits occurring in central America and definately not South America.

Pituophis as a whole are a cooler climate genus and may species thrive in very cold climates or at least cold comparative to other species.

I think Pituophis deppei deppei is southern most ranging Pit but it could be the other species Ginter mentioned a few threads down which escapes my memory. Im really new to Mexican Pits so please correct me if I have my facts wrong or if Im missing a species.

there is a species of the Genus Pituophis that ranges farther south than P. deppei. this is the species Pituophis lineaticollis. This species is represented by two recognized subspecies, a nominant form, Pituophis l. lineaticollis found in the upland and thornscrub forests of Southern Mex., and Masaquate, (Pituophis l. gibsoni) found in the highlands of Guatemala which technically is Central America!

As a group the Genus Pituophis inhabits not only a huge range but also an extremely wide variety of habitat types including but not limited to pine dominated coastal plains, coastal chaparrel, intermountain chaparrel, Pinion/juniper dominated forest, great basin scrub, eastern hardwood forest, short grass and long grass prairies, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts, deciduous thorn scrub forests, upland pine/oak/ broadleaf tropical forest, etc., you get the idea.

I hope this helps and I encourage you to explore the somewhat limited technical literature regarding this Genus. If you are curious about this group don't limit yourself to this forum.

John,
Where can i find more info about them? (i know just google it, LOL)

Thank you.
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Too many animals to count......
HerpsGai

I can't wait until my Kankakkee pair get that size! Very nice pic!!

Zack
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Everything I know about life I learned from Nintendo!!!

So Pituophis l. lineaticollis is the southern most species...how common are they in collections? Can they be or are they imported?
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Michael Enriquez

So just to be clear, Pituophis lineaticollis gibsoni is the southern most represented Pituophis which can be found in Guatemala. The nominant form (P.l.l.) is found just a bit north in extreme southern Mexico.

P.l.lineaticollis should get more available to Pituophis enthusiasts in the next few years and are become fairly well known in collections thanks to some folks in California a few years back.

P.l.gibsoni are virtually unknown in collections at present however some were legally imported by a california researcher last fall and should become available (with any luck at all) in the next few years. Look for posts regarding these guys from a few months ago.

Thank you for the clarification. Wow, I didnt know any species occurred outside of Mexico O.O Thats pretty cool

As for the cooler climate remark I guess I meant more along the lines of a colder seasonal shift. It seems to me that most of the far southern reaching species occupy higher elevations and in turn also have a cold time each year. I cant imagine any Pituophis occupying a tropical climate and sharing space with other Colubrids like Cribos, musurans etc. Though the coastal plain is very hot and humid its still a far cry from what I would consider tropical.

Ive done some quick searches for Pituophis literature and have come up with nothing of any real significance. Most websites covering Pituophis are very vague in their descriptions of Pituophis natural history and usually revolve around captive situations. Can you recommend any literature on the genus? I would love to get a better understanding of Pituophis as a whole, especially the southern species.

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

Let me rephrase that. Ive found virtually zero significant literature on Mexican Pituophis. There is actually quite a fair amount of published work in regards to LA pines and Northern Pines.

I also have a hard time finding anything signifigant on P.m.lodingi via web searches.