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Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Natricidae  

Plains Gartersnake
Thamnophis radix (Baird and Girard, 1853)

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: - 1.39 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: Alberta Manitoba Saskatchewan
USA: Colorado Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Minnesota Missouri Montana Nebraska New Mexico North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma South Dakota Texas Wisconsin Wyoming

First instance(s) of published English names:
Hoy's Garter Snake (Eutaenia radix: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Hoy's Garter Snake (Eutaenia radix: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Racine Garter Snake (Eutaenia radix: 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); Twining's Garter Snake (Eutaenia radix twiningi: 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); Eutainia radix (Racine Garter Snake: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Transition Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Rhoads, Samuel N. 1895. Contributions to the zoology of Tennessee. No. 1, Reptiles and amphibians. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 47():376-407); Racine Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Prairie Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix radix: Taylor, Edward H. 1929. A revised checklist of the snakes of Kansas. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 19(5):53-62); Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: 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.); Striped Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Says Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Hoy's Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Twining's Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); The Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Transition Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Black Spotted Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Plains Garter (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Hayden's Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix haydenii: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Racine Garter (Thamnophis radix radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Racine Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); The Racine Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix radix: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Great Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix haydeni: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Eastern Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix radix: 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
1908 Ruthven, Alexander G. Variations and genetic relationships of the garter-snakes. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (61):1-201
1946 Smith, Hobart M. Hybridization between two species of garter snakes University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History 1(4):97-100
1949 Smith, Albert G. The subspecies of the Plains garter snake, Thamnophis radix. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 8(14):285-300
1972 Baker, Robert J., George A. Mengden, and James J. Bull. Karyotypic studies of thirty-eight species of North American snakes . Copeia 1972(2):257-265
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
2000 Murphy, John C. and Russell M. Curry. A case of parthenogenesis in the Plains Garter Snake, Thamnophis radix. Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 35(2):17-19
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
2003 Walley, Harlan D., T. L. Wusterbarth, and Kristin M. Stanford. Thamnophis radix. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (779):42748

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 23:37 CT