PACIFIC COAST CENTIPEDE SNAKE
Tantilla calamarina – Cope 1866
IDENTIFICATION:
DISTRIBUTION:
HABITAT:
NATURAL HISTORY:
TAXONOMY:
This snake belongs to the Tantilla calamarina species group as defined by Wilson and Meyer (1981). It is most closely allied to T. cascadae, T. coronadoi and T. deppei.
TYPE:
PERSONAL NOTES:
I have encountered this species only once. In 2003 during a night drive near Manzanillo, Colima we found an adult T. calamarina crossing the highway at around 01:00 hours.
CONSERVATION STATUS:
Tantilla calamarina is a common and widely-distributed species; it exists in human-modified habitats and is no danger of local or wide-scale population declines.
REFERENCES:
Duellman, W. E. 1961. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michoacán, Mexico. University of Kansas Publications of the Museum of Natural History, 15:1-148.
Wilson, L. D. and Meyer, J. R. 1981. Systematics of the Calamarina Group of the Colubrid Snake Genus Tantilla. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology, 42:1-25.