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| Adult, San Diego County |
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Adult, San Diego County, found stretched out on a road on a morning in mid June. |
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Adult, San Diego County, found stretched out on the same
road half a mile away from the ringneck shown above. |
Adult, Spring Valley, San Diego County |
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Adult, Spring Valley, San Diego County |
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Adult, underside, Fallbrook, San Diego County. © Robert Beecroft |
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| Juvenile, San Diego County © Douglas Brown |
Juvenile, San Diego County, curled up in a defensive pose, with the head hidden.
© Douglas Brown |
Adult, San Diego County. © Taylor Henry |
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Adult, San Diego County
© Brad Alexander |
Adult, Laguna Mountains, San Diego County © John Stoklosa |
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| Ring-necked Snakes Feeding |
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| Ring-necked Snakes use a mild venom to subdue their prey which include snakes and lizards. This snake from San Diego County regurgitated a California Legless Lizard that it had recently eaten. © Donald Schultz |
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An adult San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake eating an adult Arboreal Salamander in Los Angeles County © Jonathan Benson |
Adult Monterey Ring-necked Snake eating a Slender Salamander, San Luis Obispo County © Andrew Harmer |
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| Habitat |
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| Habitat, 3900 ft. San Diego County |
Habitat, 3800 ft. San Diego County |
Habitat, coastal chaparral,
San Diego County |
Habitat, hillside coastal chaparral,
San Diego County |
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| Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, mountain meadow,
San Diego County |
Coastal San Diego County grassland habitat that is rapidly disappearing due to development. © Brian Hinds |
Habitat, hill next to suburbs,
San Diego County |
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| Short Videos - Including Other Subspecies of Ring-necked Snakes |
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| A few brief views of a large San Diego Ring-necked snake and its habitat. |
Another San Diego Ring-necked snake is released back where it was found. |
A Pacific Ring-necked snake is found under a log in the woods and is filmed on an old picnic table before being released to crawl back under its log. |
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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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Mildly venomous. Not considered dangerous to humans.
Enlarged non-grooved teeth in the rear of the upper jaw and mild venom which may help to incapacitate small prey.
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| Size |
The typical total length of an adult Ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus) varies somewhat by subspecies but in general it is about 11 - 16 inches (28 - 42 cm.) Hatchlings are much smaller and longer specimens are sometimes found.
The record length is 33-5/8 inches (85.4 cm.)
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| Appearance |
| A small, thin snake with smooth scales. |
| Color and Pattern |
Gray, blue-gray, blackish, or dark olive dorsal coloring, with a yellowish or light orange underside that is lightly speckled with black markings.
The underside of the tail is a bright reddish orange.
An orange band circles the neck 1.5 - 3 scales wide.
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| Similar Species |
From Contra Costa County south to San Diego County Western Black-headed Snakes and Ring-necked Snakes might be found in the same location.
Both are small slender long-tailed snakes with a ring around the neck and red coloring on the belly.
Click the photo below to learn how to tell them apart easily.
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| Life History and Behavior |
Activity |
Secretive - usually found under the cover of rocks, wood, bark, boards and other surface debris, but occasionally seen moving on the surface on cloudy days, at dusk, or at night.
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| Defense |
| When disturbed, coils its tail like a corkscrew, exposing the underside which is usually bright red. It may also smear musk and cloacal contents. |
| Diet and Feeding |
| Eats small salamanders, tadpoles, small frogs, small snakes, lizards, worms, slugs, and insects. The mild venom may help to incapacitate prey. |
| Reproduction |
Lays eggs in the summer, sometimes in a communal nest.
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| Habitat |
Prefers moist habitats, including wet meadows, rocky hillsides, gardens, farmland, grassland, chaparral, mixed coniferous forests, woodlands.
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| Geographical Range |
This subspecies, Diadophis punctatus similis - San Diego Ring-necked Snake, is found mainly in San Diego County along the coast and into the Peninsular range, and in southwestern Riverside County. Ranges south barely into northern Baja California, Mexico.
The species Diadophis punctatus - Ring-necked Snake, has a very wide range, occurring along the entire east coast of the United States west to the Great Lakes and southwest from there through the Midwest into Arizona, with scattered isolated populations throughout most of the western states including the western half of California, Oregon west of the Cascades, and south central Washington.
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| Notes on Taxonomy |
Many herpetologists no longer recognize the traditional morphologically-based subspecies of Diadophis punctatus, pending a thorough molecular study of the whole species. One ongoing study (Feldman and Spicer, 2006, Mol. Ecol. 15:2201-2222) has found all of the D. punctatus subspecies in California (except D. p. regalis) to be indistinguishable.
Based on research published in 2021,
it appears that D. punctatus is composed of several distinct lineages that do not follow the geographic ranges of the subspecies.
In a phylogeographic analysis of the species, Fontanella, et. al (2008) identified fourteen lineages of Diadophis punctatus. They did not recognize these lineages as separate species, pending a full taxonomic review that will require further dna sampling and evaluation, including populations in Mexico.
In our area, they recognized four distinct lineages, which loosely follow existing subspecies boundaries, but merge the seven subspecies into 4 groups:
1 - A southern California lineage, which includes the San Diego and San Bernardino subspecies, D. p. similis, and D. p. modestus.
2 - An eastern California lineage, which includes the Coral-bellied subspecies, D. p. pulchellus, and some of the northern intergrades with D. p. occidentalis.
3 - A Coastal California lineage, which includes the Monterey subspecies, D. p. vandenburghi, the Pacific subspcies, D. p. amabilis, the Northwestern subspecies, D. p. occidentalis, and snakes from one region of the western Sierra Nevada currently recognized as D. p. pulchellus, along with the southern intergrades in the Tehachapi mountains region.
4 - A Great Basin lineage which presumably includes the Regal subspecies, D. p. regalis, found in isolated locations in the eastern Mojave desert.
Using new samples, nuclear genes, and morphology, Fontanella, et al, (2021), confirmed the three California lineages (not including D. p. regalis) shown in the mtDNA study of Fontanella, et al in 2008, described above, and implied that they are species-level taxa, but they did not formally describe them as new taxa.
Showing seven subspecies of Diadophis punctatus in California
is clearly inaccurate now, but since it is closer to the new three or four species interpretation than it would be to show them all as one species, I will continue to show these seven subspecies until someone formally describes them as three or four species.
A rough interpretation of the ranges of these four lineages is illustrated in the map below.
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Red: Southern lineage
Orange: Eastern lineage
Purple: Coastal lineage
Light Blue: Great Basin lineage
Gray: Area where the lineage is uncertain because of a lack of
samples
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Alternate and Previous Names (Synonyms)
Diadophis punctatus - Ring-necked Snake (Stebbins 2003, 2012)
Diadophis punctatus similis - San Diego Ringneck (Stebbins 1966, 1985)
Diadophis punctatus similis (Wright & Wright 1957)
Diadophis amabilis similis - (Stebbins 1954)
Diadophis amabilis similis - San Diegan ring-neck snake (Klauber 1928)
Diadophis amabilis - Western Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis pulchellus; Diadophis punctatus pulchellus; Diadophis punctatus amabilis; Diadophis amabilis pulchellus; Coronella amabilis; Ablabs punctatus; Coluber punctatus; Diadophis punctatus. California Ring-necked Snake; Red-bellied Snake; Spotted Ring Snake) (Grinnell and Camp 1917)
Southern California ring-necked snake
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| On the US Forest Service's watch list of sensitive species. This is most likely due to the loss of so much natural habitat in coastal San Diego County. |
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| Taxonomy |
| Family |
Colubridae |
Colubrids |
Oppel, 1811 |
| Genus |
Diadophis |
Ring-necked Snakes |
Baird and Girard, 1853 |
| Species |
punctatus |
Ring-necked Snake |
(Linnaeus, 1766) |
Subspecies
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similis |
San Diego Ring-necked Snake |
Blanchard, 1923 |
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Original Description |
Diadophis punctatus - (Linnaeus, 1766) - Syst. Nat., 12th ed., Vol. 1, p. 376
Diadophis punctatus similis - Blanchard, 1923 - Occ. Papers Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, No. 142, p. 4
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Diadophis - Latin - diadema - crown and Greek -ophis - snake -- "generally w/a light ring on the occipital region."
punctatus - Latin - dotted - refers to spotted belly of species
similis - Latin - like or similar to - possibly referring to its similarity to other ringneck snakes
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Related or Similar California Snakes |
D. p. amabilis - Pacific Ring-necked Snake
D. p. modestus - San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake
D. p. occidentalis - Northwestern Ring-necked Snake
D. p. pulchellus - Coral-bellied Ring-necked Snake
D. p. regalis - Regal Ring-necked Snake
D. p. vandenburgii - Monterey Ring-necked Snake
T. planiceps - Western Black-headed 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.
Flaxington, William C. Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Field Observations, Distribution, and Natural History. Fieldnotes Press, Anaheim, California, 2021.
Samuel M. McGinnis and Robert C. Stebbins. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians. 4th Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2018.
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.
Fontanella , Frank M., Chris R. Feldman, Mark E. Siddall, & Frank T. Burbrink. Phylogeography of Diadophis punctatus: Extensive lineage diversity and repeated patterns of historical demography in a trans-continental snake. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46 (2008) 1049–1070. 2008.
Frank M. Fontanella, Emily Miles, and Polly Strott. Integrated analysis of the ringneck snake Diadophis punctatus complex (Colubridae: Dipsadidae) in a biodiversity hotspot provides the foundation for conservation reassessment. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2021, XX, 1–15
Joseph Grinnell and Charles Lewis Camp. A Distributional List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. University of California Publications in Zoology Vol. 17, No. 10, pp. 127-208. July 11, 1917.
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The following conservation status listings for this animal are taken from the October 2021 California "Special Animals List" and the October 2021 "State and Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California" list, both of which are produced by multiple agencies and available here: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CNDDB/Plants-and-Animals. You can check the link to see if there are more recent lists.
If no status is listed here, the animal is not included on either 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.
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| Organization |
Status Listing |
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| NatureServe Global Ranking |
G5T4Q |
The species is: Secure—Common; widespread and abundant.
This subspecies is Apparently Secure but the taxonomy is questionable. |
| NatureServe State Ranking |
S2? |
Imperiled in the state because of rarity due to very restricted range, very few populations (often 20 or fewer), steep declines, or other factors making it very vulnerable to extirpation from the state.
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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 |
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Sensitive |
| IUCN |
None |
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