THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Dipsadidae  

Desert Nightsnake
Hypsiglena chlorophaea Cope, 1860
hip-seh-GLEN-uh — klor-oh-FAY-ee

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: 2023.04.08.23.01.40)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.94 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
USA: Arizona California Colorado Idaho Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington

First instance(s) of published English names:
Irwin's Snake (Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha chlorophaea: 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); Desert Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata deserticola: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Mesa Verde Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata loreala: 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:
1860 Cope, Edward D. Catalogue of the Colubridae in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with notes and descriptions of new species. Part 2. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 12:241-266
1954 Tanner, Wilmer W. Additional note on the genus Hypsiglena with a description of a new subspecies. Herpetologica 10:54-56
2016 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, and Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):1-14
2016 Lee, Justin L., Adrian Thompson and Daniel G. Mulcahy. Relationships between numbers of vertebrae, scale counts, and body size, with implications for taxonomy in Nightsnakes (Genus: Hypsiglena). Journal of Herpetology 50(4):616-620
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167
2020 Myers, Eward A. and Daniel G. Mulcahy. Six additional mitochondrial genomes for North American nightsnakes (Dipsadidae: Hypsiglena) and a novel gene feature for advanced snakes. Mitochondrial DNA Part B Resources 5(3):3056-3058

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 13 June 2025 05:42 CT