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Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Dipsadidae  
Forest Sharp-tailed Snake
Contia longicauda Feldman and Hoyer, 2010
KOHN-tee-ah — lawn-jih-KAW-duh
Taxon Links
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The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
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GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 542 Total; 204 Museum; 338 Other

The locality database contains 8,248,810 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.07.26.10.14.51)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: California Oregon

Taxonomic Etymology:
A long-tailed relative of C. tenuis, described recently.
Contia — A patronym honoring John Lawrence LeConte (1825–1883), a prominent American entomologist and naturalist, with the Latinized form Contia derived from “Conte.”
longicauda — From Latin longus, “long,” and cauda, “tail.” Refers to the species’ relatively long tail, distinguishing it morphologically from C. tenuis.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Purple-tailed Snake (Contia mitis: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Sharp-tailed Snake (Contia tenuis: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Sharp-tailed Snake (Contia tenuis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);


Selected References:
1951 Stickel, William H. Distinctions between the snake genera Contia and Eirenis. Herpetologica 7:125-132
2006 Hoyer, Richard F., Ryan P. O'Donnell, and Robert T. Mason. Current distribution and status of Sharp-tailed Snakes (Contia tenuis) in Oregon. Northwestern Naturalist 87(3):195-202
2010 Feldman, Chris R. and Richard F. Hoyer. A New Species of Snake in the Genus Contia (Squamata: Colubridae) from California and Oregon. Copeia 2010(2):254–267

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