THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  

Saddled Leaf-nosed Snake
Phyllorhynchus browni Stejneger, 1890
FIL-oh-RINK-us — BROWN-eye

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: 2023.04.10.08.04.17)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.89 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its leaf-like snout and a naturalist.
Phyllorhynchus — From Greek phyllon (φύλλον), meaning “leaf,” and rhynchos (ῥύγχος), meaning “snout” or “beak,” referring to the flattened, leaf-shaped rostrum.
browni — A patronym honoring Herbert Brown (1848–1913), a prominent Arizona naturalist and ornithologist, who collected the holotype specimen.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Brown's Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus browni: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Pima Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus browni browni: 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.); Maricopa Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus browni lucidus: 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.); Brown't Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus browni: 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:
1890 Stejneger, Leonhard. On a new genus and species of colubrine snakes from North America. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 13(802):151-155
1935 Klauber, Laurence M. Phyllorhynchus, the leaf-nosed snake. Bulletins of the Zoological Society of San Diego (12):1-31
1940 Klauber, Laurence M. Two new subspecies of Phyllorhynchus, the leaf-nosed snake, with notes on the genus. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 9(20):195-214
1959 Shannon, Fredrick A., and Frances L. Humphrey. A new subspecies of Phyllorhynchus browni from Sinaloa. Herpetologica 15:145-148
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:56 CT