Variation among the Southeastern Crowned Snakes, Genus Tantilla

Abstract

The coronata group of crowned snakes in southeastern United States includes three species: Tantilla coronata Baird and Girard, 1853, and two species herein described, T. relicta and T. oolitica. T. coronata ranges through-out southeastern United States, but does not enter peninsular Florida south of the Suwannee River; T. oolitica is restricted to Dade and Monroe counties in southeastern Florida; T. relicta inhabits peninsular Florida. Variation in characters of pattern, scutellation, body proportions, and habitat support recognition of three subspecies in. T. relicta: T. r. neilli occurs in sandhills and mesic hammocks of northcentral Florida; T. r. relicta of central Florida is restricted to scrub habitat where syntopic with neilli, but also occurs in sandhills where allopatric in southcentral Florida; T. r. pamlica inhabits the narrow strip of coastal dunes and scrub in southeastern Florida. The little evidence of gene flow among subspecies is suggestive of secondary intergradation. Two named subspecies of T. coronata, wagneri (Jan) and mitrifer Schwartz, are synonymized with T. coronata. The three southeastern species of Tantilla probably were derived from a common precursor of the early Pleistocene, diverging during the successive fluctuations of sea level which characterized the glacial-interglacial stages.