Hypsiglena jani
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Hypsiglena jani, commonly known as the Texas night snake or the Chihuahuan night snake, is a small species of mildly venomous snake in the subfamily Dipsadinae of the family Colubridae. The species is native to the southwestern United States and adjacent northeastern Mexico.
Etymology
The epithet, jani, is in honor of Italian taxonomist Giorgio Jan.[1]
Description
H. jani grows from Template:Convert in total length (including tail), record Template:Convert.[2] It is typically a light gray or tan in color, with dark brown or dark gray blotching down the back,[3] and has an unmarked underside.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". It has smooth dorsal scales.[3] The eye has a vertically elliptical pupil.[3] H. jani is rear-fanged, and is considered to be venomous, though it is not dangerous to humans.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Behavior
As the common names imply, H. jani is a primarily nocturnal snake.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Diet
The diet of H. jani consists of primarily lizards, but it will also eat smaller snakes and occasionally soft bodied insects.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Habitat
H. jani prefers semi-arid habitats with rocky soils.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Reproduction
H. jani is an oviparous species that breeds in the spring rainy season, laying 4–6 eggs that take approximately 8 weeks to incubate before hatching. The eggs average Template:Convert long by Template:Convert wide. The hatchlings are about Template:Convert in total length.[4]
Geographic range
H. jani ranges from southern Kansas to southern Colorado, and south throughout New Mexico, the western half of Texas to central Mexico.[5]
Subspecies
Three subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.[6]
- Hypsiglena jani dunklei Taylor, 1938Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Hypsiglena jani jani (Dugès, 1865)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Hypsiglena jani texana Stejneger, 1893Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Hypsiglena.
References
Further reading
- Dugès A (1865). "Du Liophis janii". Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier 6: 32–33. (Liophis jani, new species). (in French).
- Stejneger L (1893). "Annotated List of the Reptiles and Batrachians Collected by the Death Valley Expedition in 1891, with Descriptions of New Species". North American Fauna 7: 159–228. (Hypsiglena texana, new species, p. 205).
- Tanner WW (1944). "A Taxonomic Study of the Genus Hypsiglena ". Great Basin Naturalist 5 (3 & 4): 25–92. (Hypsiglena dunklei, p. 48; H. ochrorhynchus janii, pp. 48–51; and H. o. texana, pp. 51–54).
External links
- ↑ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. Template:ISBN. (Hypsiglena jani, p. 133).
- ↑ Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. + Plates 1-48. Template:ISBN (hardcover), Template:ISBN (paperback). (Hypsiglena torquata texana, p. 217 + Plate 33 + Map 170).
- ↑ a b c 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 plates, 207 figures. Template:ISBN. (Hypsiglena jani, pp409410 + Plate 39).
- ↑ 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) (Hypsiglena torquata texana, pp. 326–330, Figure 101 + Map 30 on p. 315).
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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