Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Cruised roads until 1am. in the area around Bruni. Found 22 Atrox, 8 Arizona elegans, 1 Tantilla, 1 pituophis, 1 desert king, 1 freshly DOR annulata female 28 inches long, 1 garter snake, 1 hognosed(hit at dusk). Temperature was 70 degrees. It was 92 during the day.

>>Cruised roads until 1am. in the area around Bruni. Found 22 Atrox, 8 Arizona elegans, 1 Tantilla, 1 pituophis, 1 desert king, 1 freshly DOR annulata female 28 inches long, 1 garter snake, 1 hognosed(hit at dusk). Temperature was 70 degrees. It was 92 during the day.

36 snakes isn't a bad night. Too bad about the female annulata and the hog.

Did you check what species of Tantilla it was? There have been less that 10 Tantilla atriceps ever collected in the US and I wonder how many herpers down in that area ever bother to check Tantilla carefully?
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Chris Harrison

Chris, what is the distinguishing feature to look out for when looking for Tantilla atriceps? I'd be interested in getting pics if I can locate one.
Jason
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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

Essentially, if you catch what you think is Tantilla hobartsmithi anywhere south of Maverick County, you're looking at one of two things: a good range extension for T. hobartsmithi or one of only a handful of T. atriceps ever collected in Texas. Previous records for T. atriceps are from Duval and Kleburg Counties alone.

30+ snakes is great! sorry to hear about the milksnake and hognose snakes, though....

travis
austin, tx

the supposed atriceps that I found looked nothing like a hobartsmithi to me. It did look odd, and it did have the atriceps characters, but I couldn't make a decision. It was Jim Dixon who finally made a call on its specific identity.

I actually sent some tissues from the snake to Trip Lamb, who had a student doing a Tantilla project, but I never heard back from him on its identity.
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Chris Harrison

On 2050 and 359, all I've found (4) were T. nigriceps, though I was really hoping for something unusual.
Shane