THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Spotted Leaf-nosed Snake
Phyllorhynchus decurtatus (Cope, 1868)
fil-oh-RINK-us — dee-kur-taw-tus

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: - 1.46 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona California Nevada Utah

First instance(s) of published English names:
St. Lucas Phimothyra (Phimothrya decurtata: 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); Lower California Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus: 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.); Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus: 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.); Cloudy Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus nubilus: 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.); Desert Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus perkinsi: 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.); Sonora Leaf-nosed Snake (Phyllorhynchus decurtatus: 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:
1868 Cope, Edward D. Sixth contribution to the herpetology of Tropical America. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 20:305-313
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
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
1972 Baker, Robert J., George A. Mengden, and James J. Bull. Karyotypic studies of thirty-eight species of North American snakes . Copeia 1972(2):257-265
1993 McCleary, Ryan J. R. and McDiarmid, Roy W. Phyllorhynchus decurtatus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (580):1-7
2004 Gardner, Stephanie A. and Joseph R. III Mendelson. Taxonomy and geographic variation in the Leaf-Nosed Snake Phyllorhynchus decurtatus (Squamata: Colubridae). Journal of Herpetology 38(2):187-196
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 13 June 2025 04:19 CT