Prairie corn snake
| Prairie corn snake | ||||||||||||
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Prairie corn snake ( Pantherophis emoryi ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pantherophis emoryi | ||||||||||||
| ( Baird & Girard , 1853) |
The pantherophis emoryi ( Pantherophis emoryi ), and Prairie grain Natter , is a non-toxic snake of the genus American ratsnakes ( Pantherophis ).
With a typical body length of 120 to 150 cm, it is one of the medium-sized species. It has 197-236 ventral scales and 58-83 tail scales. The prairie corn snake has 27–73 dark spots along its back. It also has dark spots on the side on an otherwise light background. The species is very variable in its appearance .
As a crepuscular and nocturnal ambulance hunter, it feeds on small mammals , amphibians , reptiles and birds .
The second part of the species name, emoryi , was chosen in honor of Brigadier General William Hemsley Emory , who was the chief surveyor of the US Boundary Survey Team in 1852 who collected samples for the Smithsonian Institution .
distribution
The prairie corn snake has a large distribution area, which extends over large parts of the southern USA to northern Mexico . Of the nine species of the genus Pantherophis , the prairie corn snake has the westernmost distribution area. In the south, the main population reaches San Luis Potosí and runs from there over the east coast of Mexico via Texas and Arkansas to Missouri in the northeast of the distribution area. It reaches in the north Nebraska , Kansas and Colorado , from where the distribution area extends in the west over New Mexico to Zacatecas . A second population is found in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
Systematics
The prairie corn snake was classified in the genus Elaphe by Taylor in 1935 . In this collective genus, many outwardly similar snakes were grouped until it was divided on the basis of genetic studies. Since then the prairie corn snake belongs to Pantherophis . Slowinski's corn snake ( Pantherophis slowinskii ) is most closely related to the prairie corn snake.
No subspecies of the prairie corn snake are currently recognized.
Hazard and protection
The IUCN has the prairie corn snake on the Red List of Endangered Species as Least Concern (not endangered).
literature
- G. Köhler, P. Berg: Corn snakes . Herpeton, Offenbach, ISBN 3-936180-14-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pantherophis emoryi in The Reptile Database
- ↑ Pantherophis in The Reptile Database
- ↑ a b Pantherophis emoryi in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: GA Hammerson, of 2007.
- ^ R. Alexander Pyron, Frank T. Burbrink: Neogene diversification and taxonomic stability in the snake tribe Lampropeltini (Serpentes: Colubridae) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 52 , no. 2 , 2009, p. 524 .
