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Ground Snake (Sonora semiannulata)
Description: The western ground snake can grow to a total length (including tail) of 8 to 19 inches. The color and pattern can vary widely. Individuals can be brown, red, or orange, with black banding, orange or brown striping, or be solid-colored. The underside is typically white or gray. It has smooth dorsal scales, a small head, and the pupil of the eye is round.
Habitat: Inhabits areas with surface cover and some moisture: grassland, riverbottoms, desert flats, ranchland, sand hummocks, open rocky hillsides with loose soil, sandy washes, dry streambeds, and riparian thickets.
Range: S. semiannulata is native to the Southwestern United States, in Arizona, Nevada, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon,[5] Texas, and Utah, as well as northern Mexico, in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, and Sonora.
Diet: Eats small invertebrates, including spiders, scorpions, centipedes, crickets, and insect larvae.
Reproduction: Mating takes place in May and early June. Females are oviparous, laying eggs underground from late May to August. Females have been observed laying from 1 to 6 eggs. Incubation lasts about 60 days.
Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.
Taxonomy: On November 1, 2022 Sonora semiannulata was split into four distinct species. Sonora semiannulata, Sonora taylori, Sonora mosaueri, and Sonora episcopa.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Reptilia - Reptiles
»» Order: Squamata - Scaled Reptiles
»» Suborder: Serpentes
»» Superfamily: Colubroidea
  »» Family: Colubridae - Colubrids
»» Genus: Sonora
»» Species: Sonora semiannulata - Ground Snake
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Western ground snake", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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