Coluber constrictor oaxaca

Coluber constrictor oaxaca, commonly known as the Mexican racer, is a nonvenomous colubrid snake, a subspecies of the eastern racer (Coluber constrictor).

Coluber constrictor oaxaca
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Coluber
Species:	C. constrictor
Subspecies:	C. c. oaxaca
Trinomial name
Coluber constrictor oaxaca (Jan, 1863)
Synonyms
List Coryphodon oaxaca Jan, 1863 Bascanion oaxaca — Bocourt, 1890 Zamenis oaxacæ — Boulenger, 1893[1] Zamenis stejnegerianus Cope, 1895[2] Coluber constrictor stejnegerianus — A.H. Wright & A.A. Wright, 1957[3] Coluber constrictor oaxaca — Conant, 1975[4]

Geographic range

It is found primarily in Mexico from Tamaulipas to Vera Cruz, with isolated records of it occurring in Nuevo León, Coahuila, Durango, Colima, Oaxaca and Chiapas. The subspecies also ranges as far north as the United States in southern Texas and as far south as Guatemala. It is known to intergrade with the eastern yellow-bellied racer (Coluber constrictor flaviventris).

Description

Adults of Coluber constrictor oaxaca are 51–102 cm (20-40 inches) in total length.^[4]

They are greenish dorsally and yellowish ventrally. They have eight upper labials and eight lower labials.^[5]

Juveniles have dark, narrow, close-spaced crossbands on the anterior part of the body, unlike the mid-dorsal blotches of juveniles of most other subspecies of Coluber constrictor.^[4]