THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Southwestern Black-headed Snake
Tantilla hobartsmithi Taylor, 1937

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 The name was changed to “Smith’s Black-headed Snake” starting with the 7th edition (2012). “Southwestern” confers some geographic information about its range, and therefore we are returning to the previous name.

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: - 0.78 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona California Colorado Nevada New Mexico Texas Utah

First instance(s) of published English names:
Utah Black-headed Snake (Tantilla utahensis: 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.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
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
1937 Taylor, Edward H. Una nueva fauna de batracios anuros del Plioceno medio de Kansas. [A new fauna of anuran batrachians from the Middle Pliocene of Kansas]. Anales del Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 7(4):513-529
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
1964 McCoy, Clarence J., Jr., Garry N. Knopf, and J. Martin Walker. The snake Tantilla utahensis Blanchard: An addition to the fauna of Colorado. Herpetologica 20(2):135-136
1982 Wilson, Larry David. Tantilla. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (307):1-4
1983 Cole, Charles J. and Hardy, Laurence M. Tantilla hobartsmithi. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (318):1-2
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: Monday 19 May 2025 18:23 CT