THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
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Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  
Desert Coachwhip
Masticophis piceus (Cope, 1892)
MAS-tih-KOH-fiss — PIE-see-us
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 See comments under M. flagellum. The epithet C. piceum was introduced by Cope (1875, Bulletin of the United States National Museum 1: 1–104) as a nomen nudum. It was formally proposed by Cope (1892, Proceedings of the United States National Museum 14: 589–694), in an issue dated "1891". Crombie (1994, Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service (101): 40), gives the date of Cope’s paper in which the formal description appeared as 28 March 1892. (Boundy, Jeff, Frank T. Burbrink, and Sara Ruane. 2025. Squamata (excluding lizards) – Snakes. Pages 38-54 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Occurrences:; 3,999 Total; 3,365 Museum; 634 Other

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Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2024.02.18.16.45.29)
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Province/State Distribution:

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its apprearance.
Masticophis — Greek mastix + ophis.
piceus — Latin piceus = “pitch-colored” or “dark,” possibly referring to its often dark head or overall hue.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1875 Cope, Edward D. Check-list of North American Batrachia and Reptilia; with a systematic list of the higher groups, and an essay on geographical distribution. Based on the specimens contained in the U.S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 1:1-104
1892 Cope, Edward D. A critical review of the characters and variations of the snakes of North America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 14(882):589-694
1928 Ortenburger, Arthur I. The whip snakes and racers: Genera Masticophis and Coluber. Memiors of the University of Michigan Museum (1):1-247
1942 Klauber, Laurence M. The status of the black whip snake. Copeia 1942(2):88-97
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
1973 Wilson, Larry D. Masticophis.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (144):1-2
1994 Crombie, Ronald I. Herpetological publications of the National Museum of Natural History (USNM). 1853-1994. Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service (101):40
2004 Nagy, Z. T., R. Lawson, U. Joger, and M. Wink. Molecular systematics of racers, whipsnakes and relatives (Reptilia: Colubridae) using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 42:223-233
2008 Collins, Joseph T. and Travis W. Taggart. A proposal to retain Masticophis as the generic name for the Coachwhip and Whipsnakes. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (27):12

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