THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Natricidae  

Checkered Gartersnake
Thamnophis marcianus (Baird and Girard, 1853)

Current SSAR Comments:
Myers et al. (2017, Journal of Biogeography 44: 461–474), using mtDNA data, detected divergence between Chihuahuan and Sonoran Desert populations, which correspond to a previous taxonomic split based on morphology determined by Mittleman (1949, Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 8: 235–249). However, with genome-scale data, Myers et al. (2019, Molecular Ecology 28: 4535–4548) showed that this divergence was unclear at the intersection of those deserts.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.11.12.08.16.05)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.31 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Marcy's Garter Snake (Eutaenia marciana: Yarrow, Henry C. 1876. List of Skeletons and Crania in the Section of Comparative Anatomy of the United States Army Medical Museum for use during the International Exhibition of 1876 in Connection with the Representation of the Medical Department U.S. Army. Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. pp.); Marcy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans marciana: 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.); Marcy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus: Strecker, John K. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Marcy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus: 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.); Marcy's Snake (Thamnophis marcianus: Taylor, Edward H. 1929. A revised checklist of the snakes of Kansas. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 19(5):53-62); Checkered Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Marcy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Marcy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus marcianus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Checkered Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus marcianus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Checkered Garter Snake (Thamnophis marcianus nigrolateris: 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

Pertinent LIterature:
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
1949 Mittleman, M. Budd. Geographic variation in Marcy's Garter Snake, Thamnophis marcianus (Baird and Girard). Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 8(10):235-249
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
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: Thursday 30 January 2025 01:59 CT