THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Long-nosed Snake
Rhinocheilus lecontei Baird and Girard, 1853

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Genetic data coincide with Myers et al. (2019, Molecular Ecology 2019: 1–14) and Dahn et al. (2018, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 129: 214–225) showing two primary lineages on either side of the continental divide. This matches the classic split between the two morphological subspecies that Manier (2004, Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 83: 65–85) examined. However, none of those studies suggested taxonomic changes.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.12.06.12.48.25)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.85 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona California Colorado Idaho Kansas Nevada New Mexico Oklahoma Oregon Texas Utah

First instance(s) of published English names:
Le Conte's Snake (Rhinochilus leconteii: 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); Belle Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei: Cragin, Francis W. 1886. Note on a new variety of a Sonoran serpent from Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 10():85-86); Le Conte's Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Long-nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei: Van Denburgh, John. 1897. The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin: An account of the species known to inhabit California, and Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 5():9-236); LeConte's Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei: 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); Leconte's Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei: Taylor, Edward H. 1929. A revised checklist of the snakes of Kansas. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 19(5):53-62); Desert Long-nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei clarus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Long-nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei lecontei: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Texas Long-nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei tessellatus: 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
1885 Cragin, Francis W. Miscellaneous notes. Bulletin of the Washburn Laboratory of Natural History 1(4):147-148
1886 Cragin, Francis W. Note on a new variety of a Sonoran serpent from Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 10:85-86
1941 Klauber, Laurence M. The long-nosed snakes of the genus Rhinocheilus. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 9(29):289-332
1950 Wehler, John E. and Donald M. Darling. Rhinocheilus lecontei tessellatus Garman in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Herpetologica 6:112
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
1974 Hendricks, Fred S. Color anomaly of a Rhinocheilus lecontei tessellatus Garman from northeastern Durango, Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 8(2):185
1975 Medica, Philip A. Rhinocheilus, R. lecontei. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (175):1-4
1980 Medica, Philip A. Locality records of Rhinocheilus lecontei in the United States and Mexico. Herpetological Review 11(2):42
1990 Grismer, L. Lee. A New Long-Nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei) from Isla Cerralvo, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History (4):1-7
2002 Taggart, Travis W., Curtis J. Schmidt, and Joseph T. Collins. Range extension of the Texas Longnose Snake in western Kansas. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (1):8
2005 McCrystal, Hugh K. and Craig S. Ivanyi. Striped neonate with additional notes on polymorphism in the Western Long-Nosed Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei lecontei). Southwestern Naturalist 50(4):494-496
2016 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, and Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):1-14
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
2017 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):461-474
2018 Dahn, Hollis A., Jason L. Strickland, Alejandra Osorio, Timothy J. Colston, and Christopher L. Parkinson. Hidden diversity within the depauperate genera of the snake tribe Lampropeltini (Serpentes, Colubridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 129(2018):214-225
2019 Myers, Edward A., Alexander T. Xue, Marcelo Gehara, Christian Cox, Alison R. Davis Rabosky, Julio Lemos‐Espinal, Juan E. Martínez‐Gómez, and Frank T. Burbrink. Environmental heterogeneity and not vicariant biogeographic barriers generate community‐wide population structure in desert‐adapted snakes. Molecular Ecology 28(20):4535-4548

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 19 May 2025 18:20 CT