THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Eastern Pinesnake
Pituophis melanoleucus (Daudin, 1803)

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
Nikolakis et al. (2021, Zoologica Scripta 51: 133–146) analyzed ultra-conserved elements that showed P. melanoleucus to consist of continuous populations that did not correspond to previously recognized subspecies.

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: - 0.84 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Horned Snake (Coluber melanoleucus: Harlan, Richard. 1827. Genera of North American Reptilia, and a synopsis of the species Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philidelphia 5(2):317-372); Pine Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Bull Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Pine Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Pine Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: 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); Bull Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: 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); Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Eastern Bull-snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Common Pine Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Say's Pine Snake (Pityophis melanoleucus: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Bull Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Carpet Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Horned Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Black Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi: 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.); Common Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus: 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.); Florida Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus: 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.); Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Black Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Florida Pine Snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus: 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:
1803 Daudin, Francois M. Histoire Naturelle Generale et Particuliere des Reptiles. Vol. 6. F. Dufart, Paris. 447pp.
1932 Stull, Olive G. An annotated list of the forms of the genus Pituophis. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (250):1-5
1940 Stull, Olive G. Variations and relationships in the snakes of the genus Pituophis. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (175):1-225
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
1986 Knight, James L. Variation in snout morphology in the North American snake Pituophis melanoleucus (Serpentes: Colubridae). Journal of Herpetology 20:77-79
1990 Sweet, Samuel S. and William S. Parker. Pituophis melanoleucus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (474):1-8
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and reptiles in the upper Mississippi river valley: Systematic and distributional problems. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 66(4):149-152
1995 Reichling, Steven B. The taxonomic status of the Louisiana pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus ruthveni) and its relavance to the evolutionary species concept. Journal of Herpetology 29(2):186-198
2000 Rodriguez-Robles, Javier A. and Jose M. De Jesus-Escobar. Molecular systematics of New World Gopher, Bull, and Pinesnakes (Pituophis: Colubridae), a transcontinental species complex. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14(1):35–50
2006 Fitch, Henry Sheldon. Gopher snakes, bullsnakes and pine snakes. Journal of Herpetology (17):16-17
2008 Collins, Joseph T. and Travis W. Taggart. An alternative classification of the New World rat snakes (genus Pantherophis [Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae]). Journal of Kansas Herpetology (26):16-18
2021 Nikolakis, Zachary L., Richard W. Orton, and Brian I. Crother. Fine-scale population structure within an Eastern Nearctic snake complex (Pituophis melanoleucus). Zoologica Scripta 51(2):133-146
2024 Burbrink, Frank T., Edward A. Myers, R. Alexander Pyron. Understanding species limits through the formation of phylogeographic lineages. Ecology and Evolution 14(10):1-18

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 22:08 CT