Cape Sand Snake

Subgenus Chilomeniscus
Sonora straminea
(Cope 1860)
Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. September 6, 2015.

This snake was found crossing a blacktop road east of the Sierra Lagunas and northeast of San Jose del Cabo. Note the apical maculations on the scales in the close-up photo – a identification detail for straminea, which is restricted to the Cape region. This snake was formerly considered to be Chilomeniscus stramineus – it remains in the Chilomeniscus subgenus. In 2018, Sonora was elevated to a ‘supergenus’ containing Chilomeniscus, Chionactis, and Sonora as subgenera. For more information, see:

Cox et al., ‘Synopsis and taxonomic revision of three genera in the snake tribe Sonorini’
JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 2018 VOL. 52, NOS. 13–16, 945–988

My Flickr album for this species is here.

HerpMapper records for this species are here.

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