Eastern Foxsnake

About the Eastern Foxsnake

Pantherophis vulpinus, commonly known as the foxsnake or the eastern fox snake, is a species of nonvenomous rat snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to North America. Between about 1990 and 2011, foxsnakes were sometimes divided into two species, with P. vulpinus as the western foxsnake, and P. gloydi as the eastern foxsnake. A 2011 paper by Crother, White, Savage, Eckstut, Graham and Gardner proposed instead that the Mississippi River be established as the species boundary between two species of foxsnakes, and that those found to its east be considered P. vulpinus (including those previously known as P. gloydi) and those found to its west be given the new name P. ramspotti. This proposed that P. vulpinus, which had been known as the western foxsnake, become known as the eastern foxsnake, and the new P. ramspotti become known as the western foxsnake. Thus, P. vulpinus is sometimes called the western foxsnake and sometimes called the eastern foxsnake.

The specific name, vulpinus, (meaning "fox-like") is in honor of Rev. Charles Fox (1815–1854), collector of the holotype, an academic play on words. The specific name for the junior synonym... Wikipedia →