Pituophis lineaticollis

Pituophis lineaticollis, commonly known as the Middle American gopher snake or the cincuate bull snake, is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. There are two recognized subspecies.

Geographic range

P. lineaticollis is found in Guatemala and in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, and Querétaro.

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of P. lineaticollis is forest, at altitudes of .

Description

The longest specimen of P. lineaticollis measured by Boulenger in 1894 had a total length of , which included a tail long.

Reproduction

P. lineaticollis is oviparous.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.

• Pituophis lineaticollis gibsoni , 1954
• Pituophis lineaticollis lineaticollis (Cope, 1861)

Etymology

The genus name Pituophis is a Latinized modern scientific Greek compound Πιτυόφις : "pine snake"; from Ancient Greek: πίτυς (pítus, "pine"), and Ancient Greek: ὄφις (óphis, "snake").

The subspecific name, gibsoni, is in honor of Colvin A. Gibson (born 1918), a physician who specialized in tropical medicine.

References

Further reading

• Boulenger GA (1894). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 382 pp. + Plates I–XX. (Coluber lineaticollis, pp. 64–65).
• Cope ED (1861). "Contributions to the Ophiology of Lower California, Mexico and Central America". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia [13]: 292–306. (Arizona lineaticollis, new species, pp. 300–301).
• (2016). Snakes of Mexico: Herpetofauna Mexicana Vol. I. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Chimaira. 572 pp. .
• (1954). "Descriptions of Some New Amphibians and Reptiles from Guatemala". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 67: 159–178. (Pituophis deppei gibsoni, new subspecies, pp. 172–174).