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Tantilla nigriceps KENNICOTT, 1860

IUCN Red List - Tantilla nigriceps - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Plains Blackhead Snake
G: Flachland-Schwarzkopfschlange
S: Culebra Cabeza Negra de los Llanos 
SynonymTantilla nigriceps KENNICOTT 1860: 328
Scolecophis fumiceps COPE 1860: 371
Homalocranion praeoculum BOCOURT 1883: 582
Tantilla nigriceps — GARMAN 1884: 88
Tantilla kirnia BLANCHARD 1938 (fide MARX 1958)
Tantilla nigriceps fumiceps — SMITH 1942: 475
Tantilla nigriceps — STEBBINS 1985: 219
Tantilla nigriceps — CONANT & COLLINS 1991: 221
Tantilla nigriceps — LINER 1994
Tantilla nigriceps — ERNST & ERNST 2003: 351
Tantilla nigriceps — LINER 2007
Tantilla nigriceps — WILSON & MATA-SILVA 2014: 42
Tantilla nigriceps — WALLACH et al. 2014: 703 
DistributionUSA (W Colorado, SW Nebraska, Kansas, W Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming ?),
Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo Leon [HR 30: 114], Tamaulipas, Coahuila)

Elevation: 0-2130 m (WILSON & MATA-SILVA 2014)

fumiceps: USA (Texas); Type locality: 9 miles east of Pleasauton, Atascosa County, Texas.

nigriceps: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma; adjacent Mexico; Type locality: Indianola to Nueces, Texas, and Fort Bliss, EI Paso Co., Texas, restricted to the latter locality by Smith and Taylor (1950), which restriction, however, is invalid, as no
lectotype has ever been designated (fide Wilson 1999).  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: USNM 2046, not USNM 2040, as indicated by Smith and Taylor (1945: 140), collected by Captain Page, and USNM 4491, collected by Dr. S. W. Crawford. These specimens are not currently in the USNM collection (Steve W. Gotte, cited in Wilson 1999).
Holotype: MCZ 46249 [fumiceps] 
DiagnosisAdditional details, e.g. a detailed description or comparisons (2414 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentDiet: small frogs, very small dead fish, and the occasional centipede.

Synonymy: Wilson 1999 listed T. n. fumiceps as synonym of T. nigriceps.

Distribution: not in Sonora fide Lemos-Espinal et al. 2019. 
EtymologyThe name nigriceps is derived from the Latin words niger, meaning “black, dark, or dusky” and caput, meaning “head,” in reference to the black head cap. 
References
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  • Blanchard, Frank N. 1938. Snakes of the genus Tantilla in the United States. Zoological Series of Field Museum of Natural History 20 (28): 369-376 - get paper here
  • Chiszar, David; Smith, Hobart M. 1994. Tantilla nigriceps (Plains blackhead snake). USA: Colorado. Herpetological Review 25 (4): 168 - get paper here
  • Collins, J.T. & Collins, S.L. 2009. A pocket guide to Kansas snakes, 2nd ed. Great Plains Nature Center, Wichita, 69 pp.
  • Collins, J.T. & Collins, S.L. 2010. A pocket guide to Kansas snakes, 3rd ed. Great Plains Nature Center, Wichita, 69 pp.
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