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Trimorphodon lambda COPE, 1886

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Sonoran Lyre Snake
G: Sonora-Lyraschlange, Westliche Lyranatter
S: Ilamacoa de Sonora 
SynonymTrimorphodon lambda COPE 1886: 286
Lycodon lyrophanes COPE 1860
Trimorphodon lyrophanes — COPE 1875: 38 (part.)
Trimorphodon vandenburghi — COWLES & BOGERT 1936: 41
Trimorphodon lambda lambda — DIXON et al. 1962: 98
Trimorphodon lambda — GEHLBACH 1958
Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda — GEHLBACH 1971: 208
Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda — SCOTT & MCDIARMID 1984
Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda — TANNER 1985: 660
Trimorphodon biscutatus lambda — CROTHER 2000
Trimorphodon lambda — DEVITT et al. 2008
Trimorphodon lambda — WALLACH et al. 2014: 744 
DistributionMexico (Sonora, Chihuahua)
USA (Nevada, Arizona, S Utah, New Mexico)

Type locality: “Guaymas, Sonora”

vandenburghi: Type locality: “Wildwood Ranch near Ramona, San Diego County, California (elev. 1520 feet)”.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: USNM 13487, juvenile 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (3416 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentType species: Lycodon lyrophanes COPE 1860 is the type species of the genus Trimorphodon COPE 1861.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after the chevron-shaped mark on the head which looks like a Greek lambda.

The genus was named after Latin tri- = three, Greek morphe = shape, form, and Greek odon = tooth, referring to the three tooth shapes in the upper jaw: the long, recurved anterior teeth, the shorter middle teeth, and the elongate, grooved fangs at the rear. The gender is masculine. 
References
  • Bezy, Robert L. and Charles J. Cole 2014. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Madrean Archipelago of Arizona and New Mexico. American Museum Novitates (3810): 1-24 - get paper here
  • Bradley, W. Glen and James E. Deacon 1966. Amphibian and Reptile Records for Southern Nevada. Southwestern Naturalist 11 (1): 132-134 - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1886. Thirteenth contribution to the herpetology of tropical America. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 23: 271-287 [1885] - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1900. The crocodilians, lizards and snakes of North America. Ann. Rep. U.S. Natl. Mus. 1898: 153-1270 - get paper here
  • Cowles, Raymond B.;Bogert, Charles M. 1936. The herpetology of the Boulder Dam Region (Nev., Ariz., Utah). Herpetologica 1 (2): 33-42 - get paper here
  • Crother, B. I. (ed.) 2012. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians, Seventh Edition. Herpetological Circular 39: 1-92
  • Devitt, T.J. 2006. PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN LYRE SNAKE (TRIMORPHODON BISCUTATUS): TESTING ARIDLAND BIOGEOGRAPHICAL HYPOTHESES ACROSS THE NEARCTIC–NEOTROPICAL TRANSITION. Molecular Ecology 15: 4387-4407 - get paper here
  • Devitt, Thomas J.; Travis J. LaDuc, and Jimmy A. McGuire 2008. The Trimorphodon biscutatus (Squamata: Colubridae) Species Complex Revisited: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis of Geographic Variation. Copeia 2008 (2): 370–387 - get paper here
  • Dixon, James R.;Sabbath, Mike;Worthington, Richard 1962. Comments on snakes from Central and Western México. Herpetologica 18 (2): 91-100 - get paper here
  • Enderson, Erik F.; Thomas R. Van Devender, Robert L. Bezy 2014. Amphibians and reptiles of Yécora, Sonora and the Madrean Tropical Zone of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern Mexico. Check List 10 (4): 913-926 - get paper here
  • Gehlbach, Fredrick R. 1958. A first record for Trimorphodon lambda in New Mexico. Copeia 1958 (3): 222 - get paper here
  • Grant, C. & W.H. Woodin 1946. Trimorphodon lambda, Range extension east Herpetologica 3 (3): 80. - get paper here
  • Harrington, Sean M; Jordyn M de Haan, Lindsey Shapiro, Sara Ruane 2018. Habits and characteristics of arboreal snakes worldwide: arboreality constrains body size but does not affect lineage diversification. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 125 (1): 61–71 - get paper here
  • Heimes, P. 2016. Snakes of Mexico. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 572 pp
  • Leavitt, Daniel J. 2015. Geographic Distribution: Trimorphodon lambda (Sonoran lyresnake). Herpetological Review 46 (2): 222 - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal JA, Smith GR, Rorabaugh JC 2019. A conservation checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Sonora, Mexico, with updated species lists. ZooKeys 829: 131-160 - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal, Julio A. (ed.) 2015. Amphibians and Reptiles of the US - Mexico Border States / Anfibios y Reptiles de los Estados de la Frontera México - Estados Unidos. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas. x + 614 pp.; ISBN 978-1-62349-306-6. - get paper here
  • Lillywhite, H.B. 2022. Discovering snakes in wild places. ECO Publishing, Rodeo, NM, 164 pp. - get paper here
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • Scott N J Jr; McDiarmid R W 1984. Trimorphodon Cope. Lyre snakes. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles ( 352: 1-2 - get paper here
  • Scott, N. J., & MCDIARMID, R. W. 1984. Trimorphodon biscutatus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (353): 1-4. - get paper here
  • Skubowius, Bernd 2012. Auf Schlangensuche in Arizona. Draco 13 (50): 62-69 - get paper here
  • Tanner, Wilmer W. 1985. Snakes of Western Chihuahua. Great Basin Naturalist 45 (4): 615-676 - get paper here
  • Taylor, Edward Harrison 1938. Notes on the herpetological fauna of the Mexican state of Sonora. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 24 (19): 475-503 [1936] - get paper here
  • Turner, D. S., Van Devender, T. R., Hale, S. F., Zach, R., Martínez, R., Van Devender, R. W., ... & Paholski, C. 2022. Amphibians and reptiles of Rancho Las Playitas area, Sonora, Mexico. Sonoran Herpetologist, 35, 50-59 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Zweifel,R.G. and Norris,K.S. 1955. Contributions to the herpetology of Sonora, Mexico:Descriptions of new subspecies of snakes (Micruroides euryxanthus and Lampropeltis getulus) and miscellaneous collecting notes. American Midland Naturalist 54: 230-249 - get paper here
 
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