THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Dipsadidae  

Common Sharp-tailed Snake
Contia tenuis (Baird and Girard, 1852)

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

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.07.26.10.15.26)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.2 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
USA: California Oregon Washington

First instance(s) of published English names:
Gentle Brown Snake (Contia mitis: Cooper, James G. 1869. The fauna of California and its geographical distribution. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 4():61-81); 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); Oregon Worm Snake (Lodia tenuis: 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 mitis: Van Denburgh, John. 1897. The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin: An account of the species known to inhabit California, and Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 5():9-236); 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.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Descriptions of new species of reptiles, collected by the U. S. Exploring Expedition under the command of Capt. Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., First Part including the species from the western part of America. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6:174-177
1951 Stickel, William H. Distinctions between the snake genera Contia and Eirenis. Herpetologica 7:125-132
1970 Bury, R. Bruce, Franklin Gress, and George C. Gorman. Karyotypic survey of some colubrid snakes from western North America. Herpetologica 26(4):461-466
1998 Leonard, William P. and Ovaska, Kristiina Contia, C. tenuis Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (677):1-7
2002 Feldman, Chris R. and Greg S. Spicer. Mitochondrial variation in Sparp-tailed Snakes (Contia tenuis): Evidence of a cryptic species. Journal of Herpetology 36(4):648-655
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 19 May 2025 18:36 CT