THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Schott's Whipsnake
Masticophis schotti Baird and Girard, 1853
mas-teh-KOE-fis — SHOT-ai

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: 2024.02.18.18.19.59)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.15 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Schott's Racer (Coluber schotti: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Green Whipsnake (Coluber taeniatus schotti: 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.); Schott's Whip Snake (Masticophis taeniatus schotti: 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:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part 1. Serpents. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 2(5):xvi + 172
1928 Ortenburger, Arthur I. The whip snakes and racers: Genera Masticophis and Coluber. Memiors of the University of Michigan Museum (1):1-247
1934 Gloyd, Howard K. and Roger Conant. The taxonomic status, range, and natural history of Schott's racer. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (287):1-17
1973 Wilson, Larry D. Masticophis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (144):1-2
1996 Camper, Jeffrey D. Masticophis schotti Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (638):1-4
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
2017 O'Connell, Kyle A., Jeffrey W. Streicher, Eric N. Smith, and Matthew K. Fujita. Geographical features are the predominant driver of molecular diversification in widely distributed North American whipsnakes. Molecular Ecology 26(20):5729–5751

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 13 June 2025 04:17 CT