''Heterodon kennerlyi'', also known
commonly as the Mexican hognose snake, Kennerly's hog-nosed snake, and ''la trompa de cerdo mexicana'' in Mexican Spanish, is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of snake in the
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...
Dipsadinae
Dipsadinae is a large subfamily of colubroid snakes, sometimes referred to as a family (Dipsadidae). Species of the subfamily Dipsadinae are found in most of the Americas, including the West Indies, and are most diverse in South America. There a ...
of the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Colubridae
Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from , 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest fossil species of the family date back to the Late Eocene epoch, with earlier origins suspected. C ...
. The species is native to the southwestern United States and adjacent northeastern Mexico
[ www.reptile-database.org.]
Etymology
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''kennerlyi'', is in honor of
Caleb Burwell Rowan Kennerly, who was an American physician and naturalist.
Description
''H. kennerlyi'' has 2–6 small azygous scales behind the
rostral
Rostral may refer to:
Anatomy
* Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal region
* Rostral bone, in ceratopsian dinosaurs
* Rostral organ, of certain fish
* Rostral scale
The rostral scale, or rostral, in snakes and other sca ...
. Adults usually have a
snout-to-vent length (SVL) of . The maximum recorded SVL is .
[ Powell R, Conant R, Collins JT (2016). ''Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Fourth Edition''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. xiv + 494 pp., 47 color plates, 207 figures. . (''Heterodon kennerlyi'', p. 407 + Figure 189 on p. 408).]
Geographic range
In the United States ''H. kennerlyi'' is found in southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and southwestern Texas. In Mexico it is found in the Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Jalisco, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas.
[
]
Reproduction
''H. kennerlyi'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Heimes P (2016). ''Snakes of Mexico: Herpetofauna Mexicana Vol. I''. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Edition Chimaira. 572 pp. .
* Kennicott R (1860). "Descriptions of New Species of North American Serpents in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington". ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' 12: 328–338. (''Heterodon kennerlyi'', new species, pp. 336–337).
* Smith, Hobart M.; Chiszar, David; Eckerman, Curtis M.; Walley, Harlan D. (2003). "The taxonomic status of the Mexican hognose snake ''Heterodon kennerlyi'' Kennicott 1860". ''Journal of Kansas Herpetology'' (5): 17–2O. (''Heterodon kennerlyi'', restored to species status).
Heterodon
Snakes of North America
Reptiles of the United States
Reptiles of Mexico
Taxa named by Robert Kennicott
Reptiles described in 1860
{{Dipsadinae-stub