Combinations

• Rhinostoma occipitale Hallowell, 1854: 95 [original combination]
• Lamprosoma occipitale — Hallowell, 1856: 311 [subsequent combination]
• Chionactis occipitale — Cope, 1860: 241 [subsequent combination]
• Chionactis occipitulis — Cooper, 1870: 66 [subsequent combination]
• Holasoma occipitale — Müller, 1882: 125 [subsequent combination]
• Contia occipitalis — Garman, 1884: 91 [subsequent combination]
• Sonora occipitalis — Denburgh & Slevin, 1913: 412 [subsequent combination]

Synonyms

• Chionactis occipitalis talpina Klauber, 1951: 172 [synonymised by Wood, Fisher & Vandergast (2014: 10)]
  • Holotype: CAS 81364, adult ♂, collected by Joseph R. Slevin and Wallace Wood on 3 June 1947.
  • Type locality: “50 miles south of Goldfield on the highway to Beatty, in Nye County, Nevada”.

• Chionactis saxatilis Funk, 1967: 180
  • Holotype: MCZ 77039, adult ♂, collected by R.S. Funk in 13 August 1961.
  • Type locality: “Gila Mountains, Yuma Co., Ariz., ca. 2.5 air miles northeast (in T. 10S.. R.20W) of Fortuna Mine at an elevation of ca. 2300 feet above sea level”.

Primary references

• Hallowell, E. 1854. Description of new reptiles from California. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 7 [1854]: 91–97.
• Funk, R.S. 1967. A new colubrid snake of the genus Chionactis from Arizona. Southwestern Naturalist 12(2): 180–188. DOI: 10.2307/3669273 Reference page. 

Additional references

• Wood, D.A., Fisher, R.N. & Vandergast, A.G. 2014. Fuzzy Boundaries: Color and Gene Flow Patterns among Parapatric Lineages of the Western Shovel-Nosed Snake and Taxonomic Implication. PLoS One 9(5): e97494. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097494 Reference page. 
• Cox, C.L., Rabosky, A.R.D., Holmes, I.A., Reyes-Velasco, J., Roelke, C.E., Smith, E.N., Flores-Villela, O., McGuire, J.A. & Campbell, J.A. 2018. Synopsis and taxonomic revision of three genera in the snake tribe Sonorini. Journal of Natural History 52(13–16): 945–988. DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2018.1449912 Reference page. 

Links

• Uetz, P. & Hallermann, J. 2022. Sonora occipitalis. The Reptile Database. Accessed on 12 March 2022.