THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Natricidae  

Northwestern Gartersnake
Thamnophis ordinoides (Baird and Girard, 1852)

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: 2023.04.10.13.42.09)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.2 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
USA: California Oregon Washington

First instance(s) of published English names:
Garter Snake (Coluber ordinatus: James, Edwin. 1823. Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819, 1820. By order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of Maj. S. H. Long, of the United States Top. Engineers. Compiled from the notes of Major Long, Mr. T. Say, and other gentlemen of the party by Edwin James, botanist and geologist to the expedition. In three volumes. [Volume 1]. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London, England. 344pp.); Red Striped Garter Snake (Eutainia cooperi: Cooper, James G., George Suckley, William Cooper, George Gibbs, Asa Gray, and John L. Le Conte. 1859. The natural history of Washington territory, with much relating to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and California, between the thirty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, being those parts of the final reports on the survey of the Northern Pacific railroad route, containing the climate and physical geography, with full catalogues and descriptions of the plants and animals collected from 1853 to 1857. Bailliere Bros., London, H. Bailliere;, New York, New York. pp.); Small-headed Striped Snake (Eutainia leptocephala: Cooper, James G., George Suckley, William Cooper, George Gibbs, Asa Gray, and John L. Le Conte. 1859. The natural history of Washington territory, with much relating to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and California, between the thirty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, being those parts of the final reports on the survey of the Northern Pacific railroad route, containing the climate and physical geography, with full catalogues and descriptions of the plants and animals collected from 1853 to 1857. Bailliere Bros., London, H. Bailliere;, New York, New York. pp.); Cooper's Garter Snake (Eutaenia cooperi: 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); Grass Snake (Eutaenia sirtalis ordinata: 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); Puget Garter Snake (Thamnophis leptocephala: 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); Western Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides: 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.); Klamath Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides biscutatus: 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.); Narrow-headed Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides ordinoides: 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.); Cooper's Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Red-striped Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides: 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:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Descriptions of new species of reptiles, collected by the U. S. Exploring Expedition under the command of Capt. Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., First Part including the species from the western part of America. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6:174-177
1903 Brown, Arthur Edwin. The variations of Eutaenia in the Pacific subregion. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 55:286-297
1908 Ruthven, Alexander G. Variations and genetic relationships of the garter-snakes. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (61):1-201
1941 Myers, George S. Book review: A biogeographical study of the ordinoides artenkreis of garter snakes (genus Thamnophis). Copeia 1941(2):122-123
1948 Fox, Wade. The relationships of the garter snake Thamnophis ordinoides. Copeia 1948(2):113-120
1950 Hebard, William B. Relationships and variation in the garter snakes, genus, Thamnophis of the Puget Sound region of Washington state. Herpetologica 6(4):97-108
1979 Kirk, James J. Thamnophis ordinoides. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (233):1-2
1985 Lawson, Robin. Molecular studies of Thamnophiine snakes. Dissertation. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. 191pp.
1994 De Queiroz, Alan and Robin Lawson. Phylogenetic relationships of the garter snakes based on DNA sequence and allozyme variation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 53:209-229
2002 de Queiroz, Alan, Robin Lawson, and Julio A. Lemos-Espinal. Phylogenetic relationships of North American garter snakes (Thamnophis) based on four mitochondrial genes: How much DNA sequence is enough?. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 22(2):315-329

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 19 April 2025 23:33 CT