THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Natricidae  

Smooth Earthsnake
Virginia valeriae 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: 2023.04.10.13.42.07)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 2.49 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Alabama Arkansas Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri New Jersey North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia

First instance(s) of published English names:
Kennicott's Brown Snake (Virginia elegans: 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.); Valeria Blaney's Snake (Virginia valeriae: 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.); Kennicotts' Brown Snake (Virginia elegans: 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.); Valeria Blaney's Snake (Virginia valeriae: 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.); Virginia's Snake (Virginia elegans: 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); Valeria's Snake (Virginia valeriae: 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); Kennicott's Brown Snake (Virginia elegans: Davis, N. S., and Frank L. Rice. 1883. List of Batrachia and Reptilia of Illinois. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 1(3):25–32); Valeria's Snake (Virginia valeriae: Brimley, Clement S. 1915. List of reptiles and amphibians of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 30(4):195-206); Elegant Virginia (Virginia elegans: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Virginia Brown Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Taylor, Edward H. 1929. A revised checklist of the snakes of Kansas. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 19(5):53-62); Western Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: 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.); Eastern Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: 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.); Elegant Virginia (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Virginia Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Brown Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Valeria's Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Virginia Brown Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Virginia's Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Worm Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Brown Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Brown Worm Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Worm Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Eastern Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Spotted Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Eastern Gray Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Smooth Brown Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Valeria's Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Blaney's Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Virginia's Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Virginia Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Valeria Vlaney's Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Valery's Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae elegans: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Eastern Ground Snake (Haldea valeriae valeriae: 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
1923 Blanchard, Frank N. The snakes of the genus Virginia. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters (3):343-365
1962 Myers, Charles W. Ontogenetic color variation of the snake Virginia valeriae. Herpetologica 18(4):273-274
1964 Clark, Donald R., Jr. The structures of the hemipenis as systematic characters in the genus Virginia Baird and Girard. Herpetologica 20(1):33-37
1972 Pisani, George R. Remarks on the holotype of Virginia valeriae elegans (Kennicott). Herpetologica 28(4):348
1991 Rossman, Douglas A. and Van Wallach. Virginia. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (529):1-4
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
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
1992 Powell, Robert, Joseph T. Collins, and Lee D. Fish. Virginia valeriae. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (552):1-6
1993 Miller, Larry L. and Joseph T. Collins. History, distribution and habitat requirements for three species of threatened reptiles in eastern Kansas. Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Pratt. 29pp.
2013 McVay, John David and Bryan Carstens. Testing monophyly without well-supported gene trees: Evidence from multi-locus nuclear data conficts with existing taxonomy in the snake tribe Thamnophiini. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 68:425-431
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 23:38 CT