New Country Records and Habitat Preferences of Amphibians and Reptiles from the Sandsage Prairie in Finney County, Kansas

Abstract

During the summer of 1980 a study of the herpetofauna of the sandsage prairie was conducted south of Holcomb, Finney County, Kansas. Seven new county records, the barred tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium), yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens flavescens), eastern yellowbelly racer (Coluber constrictor flaviventris), western coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum testaceus), central plains milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum gentilis), Texas longnose snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei tessellatus), and massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) along with habitat data are reported. The sandsage prairie primarily occupies portions of 16 counties in the southwestern portion of Kansas with the largest areas, south of the Arkansas River in Hamilton, Kearny, Finney, Gray, and Ford counties (Kiichler, 1974). In 1980 a baseline study of the herpetofauna was conducted on an eight square mile section of the sandsage prairie south of Holcomb in Finney County (T.24S, R.33W, secs. 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, 31, 32) and on an uncultivated area 2.9 mi. W, 11 mi. S Holcomb (T.26S, R.34W, center sec. 4). During this study 18 species of amphibians and reptiles were collected. A perusal of the literature (Collins, 1974, 1979, 1980; Collins and Caldwell, 1976, 1978; Caldwell and Collins, 1977) indicates that seven of these species represent new county records. These species are reported to (1) record the habitat preference of these species within the sandsage prairie and to (2) update the distributional record of Kansas herpetofauna. All specimens are housed in the Museum of the High Plains (MHP), Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, with the exception of a previously unreported massasauga not from our study site. This specimen is housed in The Musuem of Natural History (KU), University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. All common and scientific names of animals were taken from Collins et al. (1978). All common and scientific names of plants were taken from Barkley (1968). This content downloaded from 207.46.13.113 on Thu, 06 Oct 2016 04:15:17 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 166 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE