Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'll be impressed if anyone can give a definitive answer on this. What county in the US would win the prize for most species in one place? I have a few ideas but will refrain (from fear of being shot down by someone more knowlegeable than myself!) :0

Lance G

Bexar county in Texas does. Although I don't know totals, I know it's snake species is 40 . They don't have as many lizards or amphibians as other places, though, so I don't know.

Lance G.,
There is a paper by Dr. Jim Keizer (sp.?) (now at Ore. St. U. here in Corvallis, Ore.) that deals with the diversity of herp species across the nation. Without searching for my reprint, there are one or more areas or counties in Texas that have 70 or 71 species of herps as I recall.

I'll let someone else look up the reference and claim the grand prize.

Richard F. Hoyer

What county in the US would win the prize for most species in one place?

That's a tough one. Narrowing it down to STATE is easy (Texas, with 188 species--see this PDF file for a complete rank-order of states' herp diversity).

Of course, not all species found in a state can be found in any given county. One could ASSUME a county in Texas would hold the record for most species of herps. One could further assume the record-holding county would be located somewhere around Bexar County, as ErikNM has mentioned (lots of influence from the South Texas/Rio Grande Vally, Edwards Plateau, East Texas, etc habitats).

There are a LOT of counties in TX. This web site gives a list of TX counties with the herp species found in each. A check of the Bexar County page shows an amazing 99 species.

Florida, which ranks second in species diversity, may have some counties with high numbers of species, if you count all the introduced species you can find.

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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

The Bexar County tally includes at least 3 introduced species--the brown anole, Mediterranean gecko, and Rio Grande chirping frog. Still, with 97 species, that's going to be hard to beat.

Bearing that number in mind, the winning county has to be in one of the following states (listed with total number of herp species, according to the PDF I linked in my previous reply):

Texas (188)
Florida (157)
Alabama (143)
Georgia (141)
North Carolina (130)
Mississippi (128)
Virginia (127)
Oklahoma (125)
South Carolina (124)
Louisiana (122)
Arizona (119)
California (117)
Tennessee (114)
New Mexico (107)
Arkansas (105)
Missouri (102)
Kentucky (102)

The rest of the states have 95 or fewer total species.

Come to think of it, Alabama or one of the other Gulf Coast states are probably going to be contenders, because although the total species counts aren't even close to Texas', they're more highly concentrated due to the fact the states are so much smaller in square mileage.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

That's funny, I grew up in Bexar (now in Medina). Maybe it USED to have the highest species, but I doubt it now. There is very little good habitat left in that county. San Antonio is paving over everything at at alarming rate. I bet there has been at least 1,000 apartment complexes built in that city since I was little. And now most of the creeks are concrete drainage ditches. It's hard to find anywhere to herp (legally) there. The most productive is to have someone drop you off near an overpass (or walk from the nearest parking area) over a creek and follow the creek along the flood zone where there is usually still a thin strip of habitat on each side. You can usually find all the usual suspects easily that way (anoles, skinks, spiny lizards, turtles, garter and water snakes). But many of the species listed as once residents of Bexar county (indigos, Texas tortoises, horned lizards, etc) are probably long gone. Check out this sattelite image of San Antonio and you can see not much habitat left at all (even less than this now, image is from 1995)...

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=15&Z=14&X=85&Y=508&W=3&qs=|san antonio|tx|

Chris, did you get that info from the Reptiles and Amphibian Study Merit Badge book from the good ol' Boy Scouts of America by any chance?
Todd Hughes

>>Chris, did you get that info from the Reptiles and Amphibian Study Merit Badge book from the good ol' Boy Scouts of America by any chance?

Negatory. Only from the sources I cited.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

Chris,

that PDF is an old list compiled from a 1997 SSAR checklist and the A&M site is based on data only through June 1998. Using the most recent "official" lists (SSAR 2000), Dixon's Amphibians and Reptiles of Texas (2000) and Werler and Dixon's Texas Snakes, I think there are at least 200 species. Some of the increase in numbers is due to 1. increase in exotic species (especially gecko species) and 2. increase in diversity of central TX salamanders (especially w/ new species described).

travis
austin, tx

>>that PDF is an old list compiled from a 1997 SSAR checklist and the A&M site is based on data only through June 1998.

True, but even though the references were older, I think TX is still unchallenged as far as being the state with the most herp diversity.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

I know you guys had it good down there but wow! I just have to move south for some herp'n trips!

Lets see, how many states was it that had over 95 species?

Here, the province of Alberta is at least the size of Texas, probably larger, and is just as diverse in habitat. The species are so limited I can probably list them off the top of my head.

The Edmonton area has;
wood frog
chorus frog
boreal toad
red sided garter
wandering garter
______ garter (forgot the third)Plains?
canadian toad
tiger salamander

Way further south near the montana border;
prairie rattlesnake
western hognose
bullsnake
horned lizard
long toed salamander
plains spadefoot toad
red spotted frog
and there is possibly another toad that I've forgotten

I admit that I have nothing to complain about, but am just jealous of all the fauna down your way.

Of the 15-16 species, about 10 can be found if you know where to look. The others are real target species. I've found 5 species so far.

Happy herp'n everyone!

Michigan has 18 species of snakes, providing you accept the reclassification of Eastern fox snakes to its own species, and 13 species of frogs and toads. It's the northern limit for most of the snakes.

There's one lizard, a number of turtles and salamanders too. I manage to stay busy in the summertime finding and cataloging species because we have fine weather from June to August, a time when the deep south is a boiling oven. Someone should do a chart for all the states.

TC

.. has to be high on the list!

21 Lizards
10 Turtles
34 Snakes
24 Amphibians
1 Crocodilian

That's counting to the sub-species level.

Here's a link to info in my website.. the local photo albums are still under construction!

About the Brownsville area.

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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

I don't know about you guys, but "corn snake"???In Nueces co. I know I've found others not on the list so I guess I'll have to contribute some road kills to TAMU Corpus Christi to help update. I know I had a large Schott's whipsnake and by the way, Gus , nice Massasauga!? Desert or Western? I donated mine to the new zoo here.
Todd Hughes

Don't know the total for Pima, but Maricopa Co. AZ (with less habitat diversity than Pima) has 82 species.

I count 96 species in Pima County, but am probbly missing a few introduced species.