Distribution maps V: Hypsiglena torquata

Here is the final set of distribution maps from the posters on the sixth floor of BYU's Widtsoe Building.[1] This last one comes from Daniel Mulcahy, who is now a professor at Utah State University. He produced a poster about North American night snakes from the species, Hypsiglena torquata. It is comprised of several subspecies populations (though Mulcahy argues that several represent distinct species [2]). His poster included a map showing the ranges of most of the subspecies. The rest I was able to deduce or find on the internet.

As before several of the maps depicted species with such narrow ranges that I created an inset so that they could be better visualized. However, this time there were a few new wrinkles. Some of the species of night snake are only found on a single island. Often these islands were so small that they were still hard to pick out in the inset. So I added a red arrow to point to the correct island. And in one case, I had to use two insets and an arrow!

Western North American Night Snakes (Hypsiglena torquata)

Boulenger's Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. affinis)

Cedros Island Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. baueri)

Santa Catalina Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. catalinae)

Sonoran Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. chlorophaea)

Desert Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. deserticola)

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. dunklei (see subsp. jani below)

Isla Partida Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. gularis)

Texan Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. jani [brown], subsp. dunklei [orange], and subsp. texana [yellow]) [3]

San Diego Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. klauberi)

Mesa Verde Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. loreala)

San Martin Island Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. martinensis)

California Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. nuchalata)

Spotted Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. ochrorhyncha)

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. texana (see subsp. jani above)

Tiburón Island Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. tiburonensis)

Collared Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. torquata)

Isla Tortuga Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. tortugaensis)

Clarion Island Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. unaocularis)

Central Baja Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata subsp. venusta)

The poster also showed the range of the other species of Hypsiglena (Hypsiglena tanzeri) and the only species of the genus Eridiphas (Eridiphas slevini).

Rio Verde Night Snake (Hypsiglena tanzeri)

Baja California Night Snake (Eridiphas slevini)

Once I had the maps created and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, I inserted them into the taxoboxes of existing Wikipedia articles: Hypsiglena, Hypsiglena torquata, Hypsiglena torquata jani, and Hypsiglena torquata nuchalata.

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Notes:

[1] For the others, see here, here, here, and here. I also created this map for the Harpy Eagle almost a year ago.

[2] Mulcahy, D. G. (2008) "Phylogeography and species boundaries of the western North American Nightsnake (Hypsiglena torquata): Revisiting the subspecies concept." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 46 (3): 1095–1115. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.12.012

[3] Many researchers, including Mulcahy, consider these three subspecies (dunklei, jani, and texana) to be the same and call them, collectively, Hypsoglena torquata subsp. jani). I decided not to take sides, so I included all three on this map.

Image attributions:

Hypsiglena torquata distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. affinis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata affinis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. baueri distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata baueri distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. catalinae distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata catalinae distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. chlorophaea distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata chlorophaea distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. deserticola distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata deserticola distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. dunklei distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata dunklei distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. gularis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata gularis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. jani distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata jani distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. klauberi distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata klauberi distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. loreala distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata loreala distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. martinensis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata martinensis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. nuchalata distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata nuchalata distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. ochrorhyncha distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata ochrorhyncha distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. texana distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata texana distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. tiburonensis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata tiburonensis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. torquata distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata torquata distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. tortugaensis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata tortugaensis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. unaocularis distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata unaocularis distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. venusta distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena torquata venusta distribution.svg.

Hypsiglena torquata subsp. tanzeri distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypsiglena tanzeri distribution.svg.

Eridiphas slevini distribution is by Ninjatacoshell, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eridiphas slevini distribution.svg.