Regal Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus regalis)

Created: February 5th, 2011 - 03:50 PM
Last Modified: March 11th, 2011 - 10:06 PM Entered by: Brad Sillasen
Record 62730

Country: United States		State: California	County: San Bernardino County	Time: 2010-05-16 10:00:00
Qty: 1	Age: Adult	Sex: --	Method: Rock flipping	Habitat: High Desert Spring/Desert Scrub
Body Temperature: -----		Air Temperature: -----	Ground Temperature: -----	Humidity: -----
Sky Conditions: -----		Moon Phase: -----	Elevation: 4900.00ft	Barometric Pressure: -----

Notes

Voucher a fresh shed underneath a 24" boulder. Shed analyzed by Chris Feldman, University of Nevada, et al.

Quote from Chris in an email (Fri, 4 Feb 2011) addressed to William Flaxington who submitted the shed.

"Well, I feel confident that your snake skin is a Diadophis punctatus regalis.

It was fairly easy to rule out most other small desert snakes given the size, shape, and placement of the eyes. And while Tantilla is the closest in terms of resemblance, the size and shape of the head scutes was much more consistent with Diadophis. But the absolute clincher is the fact that the skin has 17 dorsal scales at midbody. No other other small desert snakes has this feature. I also used some water to soften the skin and draw out any pigmentation, an old trick. This allowed me to manipulate the skin so I could invert the and head back to its normal position and get a much better view of the head scutes. When I did this I could clearly see the loreal scale that Diadophis possesses and Tantilla lacks.

Just to be sure I sent photos of the skin to 3 people and mailed the skin to a buddy at the Smithsonian. My friends belly-ached that the photos of the skin I sent were useless, but my friend at the USNM agreed that it is a ringneck. He just sent the snake skin back, so I can mail it to you if you like.

Sorry this took so long...I just wanted independent confirmation.
"
Chris Feldman

Voucher images courtesy of William Flaxington

Voucher shed submitted to the University of Nevada collection.

Vouchers

Specimen deposited at Biological Resources Research Center, University of Nevada, Reno

Comments

Posted by Jonathan Hakim on Mar 11, 2011 at 09:53 PM

It's near the bottom of the list and titled funny - "UNR - Biological Resources Research Center, University of Nevada, Reno"

Posted by Brad Sillasen on Mar 11, 2011 at 09:10 PM

Thanks you guys.

- Jonathan, can't find a dropdown entry for University of Nevada. ...also have to follow-up with a collection identifier.

Posted by Jonathan Hakim on Mar 11, 2011 at 11:22 AM

Very nice - this a place in the entry where you can enter in the collection institution information - it's right underneath the spot where you enter the photo vouchers.

Posted by RJ Adams on Feb 05, 2011 at 09:40 PM

Very cool post and nice job explaining the identification process.