Range in California: Red
Click the map for a guide
to the other subspecies.
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| Adult, Inyo County |
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| Adult, Kern County |
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Adult, Riverside County |
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Adult, Riverside County |
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| Adult, Inyo County |
Adult, Riverside County
© Harold De Lisle |
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Adult, northeast Kern County
(Possible intergrade - showing some characteristics of C. o. talpina.) |
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| Adult, northeast Kern County |
Adult male, San Bernardino County
© Trevor Yehle |
This black and white snake was found in Riverside County © Brian Hinds |
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| Black and white phase adult from Riverside County © Gregory Litiatco |
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Adult, Riverside County
© Gregory Litiatco |
Adult, northern Riverside County © Brian Hinds
This snake from the Little San Bernardino Mountains, which are in the range of C. occipitalis, shows characteristics of the southern species of Chionactis -
C. a. annulata - including some red markings and black bands that circle the body.
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Adult, Kern County © Ryan Sikola |
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Chionactis occipitalis formerly classified as the now-defunct subspecies
Chionactis occipitalis talpina (Hallowell, 1854) Nevada Shovel-nosed Snake |
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| Adult, Inyo County |
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Adult, Inyo County |
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Adult, Inyo County
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| Adult, Inyo County |
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| Habitat |
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| Habitat, Inyo County |
Habitat, Inyo County |
Habitat, Riverside County |
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| Habitat, Riverside County |
Habitat, Riverside County |
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| Short Videos |
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| Two views of a Mohave Shovel-nosed Snake crawling. |
Tired of being continually picked up and posed for the camera, this tiny but gutsy Mohave Shovel-nosed Snake finally got angry and struck repeatedly at the camera. |
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| Similar Snakes |
Comparison chart of Chionactis in California,
along with the similar sympatric species - Sonora semiannulata,
and the similar species - Chilomeniscus stramineus.
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| Description |
Not Dangerous (Non-poisonous) - This snake does not have venom that is dangerous to most humans.
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| Size |
Adults are 11 - 17 inches long (25 - 43 cm)
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| Appearance |
A small rounded snake with smooth, unkeeled, shiny scales.
The head is narrow with a large spade-like scale on the tip of a flat shovel-like snout, a countersunk lower jaw, and nasal valves. |
| Color and Pattern |
The ground color is cream or yellowish and the body is circled with 24 or more dark brown bands, usually with no red crossbands between them.
Most dark bands do not completely encircle the body.
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| Life History and Behavior |
Activity |
Nocturnal.
Burrows underground in daytime, but occasionally found by day in shaded areas.
Smooth scales, flat shout, concave abdomen, and nasal valves are adaptations that allow for a quick swimming movement through loose sand, with an s-shaped, side-to-side movement.
Often seen crossing desert roads at night. |
| Diet and Feeding |
| Eats invertebrates: insects, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, larval insects and moths, often while the snake is burrowing. |
| Breeding |
Lays eggs late spring through summer.
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| Habitat |
Inhabits dry desert habitats with loose sand and often with little vegetation - washes, dunes, sandy flats, rocky hillsides.
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| Geographical Range |
The species Chionactis occipitalis - Western Shovel-nosed Snake, occurs from the Southern California deserts into Nevada, western Arizona, Baja California and northern Sonora, Mexico.
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| Notes on Taxonomy |
Cox et al in their April 2018 paper "Synopsis and taxonomic revision of three genera in the snake tribe Sonorini," synonymized genera Chilomeniscus and Chionactis with genus Sonora. They did not discuss common names changes.
If their taxomomy is accepted:
* Sonora semiannulata semiannulata becomes Sonora semiannulata;
* Chionactis occipitalis becomes Sonora occipitalis;
* Chionactis annulata annulata becomes Sonora annulata;
* Chilomeniscus stramineus, where possibly present in California, becomes Sonora cincta.
(Synopsis and taxonomic revision of three genera in the snake tribe Sonorini.
Christian L. Cox, Alison R. Davis Rabosky, Iris A. Holmes, Jacobo Reyes-Valasco, Corey E. Roelke, Eric N. Smith, Oscar Flores-Villela, Jimmy A. GcGuire and Jonathan A. Campbell.
Journal of Natural History, 2018 Vol. 52, Nos. 13-16, 945-988.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2018.1449912)
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SSAR Herpetological Circular No. 43, 2017, recommends a change in the currently accepted taxonomy of
Chionactis occipitalis:
"Wood et al. (2008, Conserv. Gen. 9: 1489–1507) demonstrated, using mtDNA and morphological data, that population structure was not concordant with the traditional subspecific taxonomy. They also revealed two potentially independent evolutionary lineages. A phylogeographic study from Wood et al. (2014; PLoS ONE e97494) using mtDNA and microsatellites indicates that C. o. annulata should be elevated to species status, while retaining two subspecies
C. a. annulata and C. a. klauberi, that conform to patterns of genetic structure. The authors found no support for
C. o. talpina and place it in synonomy with C. occipitalis."
C. o. annulata becomes: C. annulata annulata (Baird, 1859 “1858”) - Colorado Desert Shovel-nosed Snake
C. o. klauberi becomes: C. a. klauberi (Stickel, 1941) - Tucson Shovel-nosed Snake
C. o. occipitalis becomes: C. occipitalis (Hallowell, 1854) - Mohave Shovel-nosed Snake
C. o. talpina becomes: C. occipitalis (Hallowell, 1854) - Mohave Shovel-nosed Snake
'The spelling of the word "Mojave" or "Mohave" has been a subject of debate. Lowe in the preface to his "Venomous Reptiles of Arizona" (1986) argued for "Mohave" as did Campbell and Lamar (2004, "The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere"). According to linguistics experts on Native American languages, either spelling is correct, but using either the "j" or "h" is based on whether the word is used in a Spanish or English context. Given that this is an English names list, we use the "h" spelling (P. Munro, Linguistics, UCLA, pers. comm.).'
(Taxon Notes to Crotalus scutulatus, SSAR Herpetological Circular no 39, published August 2012, John J. Moriarty, Editor.)
Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)
C. o. occipitalis - Mojave Shovel-nosed Snake (Stebbins 1966, 1985, 2003, 2012)
C. o. occipitalis - Mojave ringed snake; banded (ground) snake; (bicolor) spade-nosed snake; desert (ground) snake; Hallowell's ground snake; Mojave desert shovel-nosed snake; pencil snake; ringed ground snake; shovel-nosed ground snake; tricolor ground snake (Wright & Wright 1957)
C. o. occipitalis - (Stebbins 1954)
C. o. occipitalis - Desert burrowing snake (Camp 1916)
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
| Genus |
Chionactis |
Shovel-nosed Snakes |
| Species |
occipitalis |
Western Shovel-nosed Snake |
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Original Description |
Chionactis occipitalis - (Hallowell, 1854) - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 7, p. 95
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Chionactis - Greek - chion - snow and aktis - ray or beam
occipitalis - Latin - pertaining to the back of the head
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Mojave Desert Shovelnose Snake
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Related or Similar California Snakes |
C. o. annulata - Colorado Desert Shovel-nosed Snake
C. o. talpina - Nevada Shovel-nosed Snake
S. s. semiannulata - Variable Groundsnake
R. l. lecontei - Western Long-nosed Snake
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More Information and References |
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012.
Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972.
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Snakes of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Bartlett, R. D. & Alan Tennant. Snakes of North America - Western Region. Gulf Publishing Co., 2000.
Brown, Philip R. A Field Guide to Snakes of California. Gulf Publishing Co., 1997.
Ernst, Carl H., Evelyn M. Ernst, & Robert M. Corker. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003.
Wright, Albert Hazen & Anna Allen Wright. Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press, 1957.
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| Conservation Status |
The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the August 2019 California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB) Special Animals List and the CNDDB 2019 Endangered and Threatened Animals List, both of which are published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The status listings here might not be the most current. Check the CDFW CNDDB website to see if there are more current lists: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals
If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either CDFW CNDDB list. This most likely indicates that there are no serious conservation concerns for the animal. To find out more about an animal's status, you can go to the NatureServe and IUCN websites to check their rankings.
This snake is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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| NatureServe Global Ranking |
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| NatureServe State Ranking |
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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