Description: Adults are 26 to 70 inches in length. Average length is 3 to 4 feet. A medium-sized muscular snake with smooth, glossy scales, a faded or bleached-out appearance, and a short tail. Smooth, glossy scales with a faded or bleached-out appearance, a light brown, gray, cream, or pink ground color with tan brown or gray blotches on back and sides with black edges and a pale, unmarked underside. An average of 63 narrow blotches on body.

Habitat: Inhabits barren open sandy desert, desert scrub, rocky washes, grasslands. Appears to prefer microhabitats of open areas and areas with soil loose enough for easy burrowing.

Range: This subspecies, Arizona elegans candida - Mohave Glossy Snake, occurs from Inyo County south through much of the Owens Valley and most of the Mojave Desert, and east into southwestern Nevada.

Found in these States: CA | NV

Diet: Preys mostly on sleeping diurnal lizards, but also eats small snakes, terrestrial birds, and nocturnally-active mammals. Hunts active mammals at night by waiting in ambush. Kills prey by direct swallowing or constriction.

Reproduction: Females are oviparous - laying from 3 to 23 eggs (more often 5 to 12) in June and July. Eggs most likely hatch in late summer and early fall.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of the large and probably relatively stable extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of subpopulations, and population size. This species is not threatened in most of its range.

Taxonomy: