Pituophis is a genus of nonvenomous colubrid snakes, commonly referred to as gopher snakes, pine snakes, and bullsnakes, which are endemic to North America. They are often yellow or cream in color with dark spots and a dark line across their face. Some species can exceed seven feet in length. Gopher snakes can live for 15 years. The gopher snake is commonly misidentified as a rattlesnake because of its similar coloration and its defensive behavior when feeling threatened. A scared gopher snake will flatten its head, hiss loudly, and shake its tail rapidly, doing a very convincing rattlesnake imitation.

Nomenclature

The genus name Pituophis is a Latinized modern scientific Greek compound Πιτυόφις : "pine snake"; from

(pítus, "pine"), and (óphis, "snake").

Geographic range

Species and subspecies within the genus Pituophis are found throughout Mexico, the Southern and Western United States and Western Canada.

Description

All species of Pituophis are large and powerfully built. The head is relatively small in proportion to the body and it is only slightly distinct from the neck. The rostral is enlarged and elongated, imparting a characteristic somewhat pointed shape to the head. All the species occurring in the United States have four prefrontals instead of the usual two.

Species and subspecies

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Image !! Scientific name !! Common name !!Subspecies !!Distribution

|-

|120px || Pituophis catenifer ||gopher snake ||

  • P. c. affinis – Sonoran gopher snake
  • P. c. annectens – San Diego gopher snake
  • P. c. bimaris – central Baja California gopher snake
  • P. c. catenifer – Pacific gopher snake
  • P. c. coronalis – Coronado Island gopher snake
  • P. c. deserticola – Great Basin gopher snake
  • P. c. fulginatus – San Martin Island gopher snake
  • P. c. pumilis – Santa Cruz Island gopher snake
  • P. c. sayi – bullsnake

||North America

|-

|120px || Pituophis deppei ||Mexican bullsnake ||

  • P. d. deppei – southern Mexican pine snake
  • P. d. jani – northern Mexican pine snake

||central, Mexico

|-

||| Pituophis insulanus || Cedros Island gopher snake ||||Isla de Cedros, Mexico

|-

|120px || Pituophis lineaticollis ||Middle American gopher snake ||

  • P. l. gibsoni
  • P. l. lineaticollis

|| From Mexico city, south through Mexico and to Guatemala

|-

|120px || Pituophis melanoleucus ||pine snake ||

  • P. m. lodingi – black pine snake
  • P. m. melanoleucus – northern pine snake
  • P. m. mugitus – Florida pine snake

||southeastern United States

|-

|120px || Pituophis ruthveni || Louisiana pine snake|||| west-central Louisiana and East Texas

|-

|120px || Pituophis vertebralis || Cape gopher snake|||| southern Baja California Sur, Mexico.

|-

|}

References

Further reading

  • Accounts of four subspecies, P. deppei deppei, P. deppei jani, P. lineaticollis lineaticollis and P. lineaticollis gibsoni, are given in Duellman WE (1960). "A Taxonomic Study of the Middle American Snake, Pituophis deppei ". University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History 10: 599–610.