Storeria

Storeria
	Texas brown snake, Storeria dekayi texana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Subfamily:	Natricinae
Genus:	Storeria; Baird & Girard, 1853
Synonyms
	Coluber, Ischnognathe, Ischnognathus, Tropidonotus

North American brown snake

A brown snake in Clarksville, Tennessee

Storeria is a genus of snakes in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The genus is endemic to North America and Central America. The genus consists of five species, four of which are known as brown snakes, and the other of which is known as the redbelly snake.

Geographic range[]

Species in the genus Storeria are found in the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada and range south through Mexico and northern Central America.^[2]

Etymology[]

The genus is named in honor of American physician and naturalist David Humphreys Storer (1804–1891).^[2]^[3]

Description[]

As their common names imply, most snakes of the genus Storeria are a variant of brown in color. The brown can vary depending on locale, to be almost a brick red in color, to nearly black. They sometimes have a lighter-colored stripe down the center of the back, and small black blotches along the body, and just behind the head. The underside is usually lighter brown-colored, yellow, or in the case of the redbelly snake, reddish in color. They rarely grow beyond 13 in (33 cm) in total length (including tail). One of the best means of identification is by scalation. The dorsal scales are keeled, the head has no loreal scale, and the postnasal scale touches the preocular scale. So, only two scales are between the nasal opening and the eye.

Ecology[]

Within their ranges, brown snakes are very commonly found species of snake. They are most frequently found under leaf litter or debris piles, and are sometimes turned up during gardening. They consume a variety of invertebrate prey, including, earthworms, snails and slugs. Their only means of defense are flattening of the body and excretion from the anal scent glands.^[4]^[5] Brown snakes give birth to live young.^[2]

Species and subspecies[]

Storeria dekayi (Holbrook, 1836) – brown snake
- Dugès, 1888
- Storeria dekayi dekayi (Holbrook, 1836) – northern brown snake
- , 1961 – marsh brown snake
- , 1944
- Storeria dekayi texana Trapido, 1944 – Texas brown snake
- Cope, 1885
- Trapido, 1944 – midland brown snake
Storeria hidalgoensis Taylor, 1942 – Mexican yellowbelly brown snake
Storeria occipitomaculata (Storer, 1839) – redbelly snake
- Storeria occipitomaculata obscura Trapido, 1944 – Florida redbelly snake
- Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata (Storer, 1839) – northern redbelly snake
- H.M. Smith, 1963 – Black Hills redbelly snake
(Cope, 1866) – Mexican brown snake
Storeria victa O.P. Hay, 1892 – Florida brown snake

Nota bene: A binomial authority (or trinomial authority) in parentheses indicates that the species (or subspecies) was originally described in a genus other than Storeria.

Gallery[]

References[]

^ Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. 1,105 pp. (in two volumes). (Genus Storeria, pp. 696-697).
^ ^a ^b ^c Ernst, Carl H. (2012). "Storeria ". Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (900): 900.1–900.14.
^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Genus Storeria, p. 255).
^ Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. (Genus Storeria, pp. 227-230).
^ Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. ISBN 0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-395-19977-8 (paperback). (Genus Storeria, p. 153).

External links[]

Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi ) Species account from the Savanna River Ecology Laboratory Herpetology Program (University of Georgia). Accessed April 6, 2014.
Genus Storeria at The Reptile Database
Brown Snake - Storeria dekayi Species account from the Iowa Reptile and Amphibian Field Guide.

[1] Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. 1,105 pp. (in two volumes). (Genus Storeria, pp. 696-697).

[CAAR-2] Ernst, Carl H. (2012). "Storeria ". Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (900): 900.1–900.14.

[3] Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Genus Storeria, p. 255).

[4] Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. (Genus Storeria, pp. 227-230).

[5] Conant R (1975). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. xviii + 429 pp. ISBN 0-395-19979-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-395-19977-8 (paperback). (Genus Storeria, p. 153).

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