Sonora (genus)

Sonora is a small genus of small harmless colubrid snakes commonly referred to as ground snakes, which are endemic to North America.

Sonora
Western ground snake (Sonora semiannulata)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Colubridae
Subfamily: Colubrinae
Genus: Sonora
Baird & Girard, 1853
Synonyms[1]

Chilomeniscus, Chionactis, Contia, Homalocranium, Homalosoma, Lamprosoma, Ogmius, Scolecophis

Geographic range

They range through central and northern Mexico, and the Southwestern United States.

Habitat

They are sand dwellers.[2]

Species
  • Sonora aemula (Cope, 1879) – filetail ground snake
  • Sonora annulata (Baird, 1859) – Colorado Desert shovelnose snake
  • Sonora cincta Cope, 1861 – Arizona ground snake, banded burrowing snake, horse snake, red and black ground snake, Sonora ringed snake[1]
  • Sonora episcopa Kennicott, 1859 – ground snake
  • Sonora fasciata Cope, 1892 – variable sand snake, banded sand snake
  • Sonora michoacanensis (Dugès, 1884) – Michoacán ground snake
  • Sonora mosaueri Stickel, 1938 – Mosauer’s ground snake
  • Sonora mutabilis Stickel, 1943 – Michoacán ground snake
  • Sonora occipitalis (Hallowell, 1854) – western shovelnose snake
  • Sonora palarostris (Klauber, 1937) – Sonoran shovelnose snake
  • Sonora savagei Cliff, 1954 – Savage's sand snake[3]
  • Sonora semiannulata Baird & Girard, 1853 – western ground snake
  • Sonora straminea Cope, 1860 – variable sand snake, banded sand snake
  • Sonora taylori (Boulenger, 1894) – Taylor's ground snake[3]

References
  1. Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of Cornell University Press. 1,105 pp. (in 2 volumes). ("Genus Chilomeniscus", pp. 116–120; "Genus Sonora", pp. 669–692).
  2. Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN 0-7167-0020-4. (Subfamily Colubrinae, Genus Sonora, p. 324).
  3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Chilomeniscus savagei, p. 233; Sonora taylori, p. 262).

Further reading
  • Baird SF, Girard CF (1853). Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part I.—Serpents. Washington, District of Columbia: Smithsonian Institution. xvi + 172 pp. (Sonora, new genus, p. 117).
  • Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. ISBN 0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-395-19977-8 (paperback). (Genus Sonora, p. 213).
  • Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. (Genus Sonora, p. 197).
  • Smith HM, Brodie ED Jr (1982). Reptiles of North America: A Guide to Field Identification. New York: Golden Press. 240 pp. ISBN 0-307-13666-3 (paperback). (Genus Sonora, p. 166).


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