THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  

Flat-headed Snake
Tantilla gracilis Baird and Girard, 1853
tan-TILL-ah — GRASS-ih-lis

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: 2023.04.10.13.42.12)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.12 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arkansas Illinois Kansas Louisiana Missouri Oklahoma Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its graceful form.
Tantilla — A diminutive form of Tantillus, itself likely derived from Latin tantus, meaning “so small” or “so little.” The name refers to the small size of these snakes.
gracilis — From Latin gracilis, meaning “slender,” “graceful,” or “thin.” Refers to the snake’s slim, delicate body.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Graceful Tantilla (Tantilla gracilis: 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); Hallowell's Tantilla (Tantilla hallowelli: 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); Slender Tantilla (Tantilla gracilis: 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.); Slender Flat-headed Snake (Tantilla gracilis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Slender Flat-headed Snake (Tantilla gracilis gracilis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Flat-headed Snake (Tantilla gracilis hallowelli: 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
1935 Force, Edith R. A local study of the opisthoglyph snake Tantilla gracilis Baird and Girard. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 20:645-659
1936 Taylor, Edward H. Notes and comments on certain American and Mexican snakes of the genus Tantilla with descriptions of new species. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 39:335-348
1938 Blanchard, Frank N. Snakes of the genus Tantilla in the United States. Zoological Series of the Field Museum of Natural History 20(28):369-376
1968 Hardy, Laurence M. and Charles J. Cole. Morphological variation in a population of the snake, Tantilla gracilis Baird and Girard. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History 17(15):613-629
1971 Savitzky, Alan H. and Joseph T. Collins. Tantilla gracilis, a snake new to the fauna of Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 5(1-2):86-87
1982 Wilson, Larry David. Tantilla. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (307):1-4
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
2018 Cox, Christian L., Joel F. Stringer, Matthew a. Moseley, Paul T. Chippindale, and Jeffery W. Streicher. Testing the geographical dimensions of genetic diversity following range expansion in a North American snake. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2018(125):586–599

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 16:59 CT