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Nerodia taxispilota (HOLBROOK, 1838)

IUCN Red List - Nerodia taxispilota - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae (Natricinae), Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Brown Water Snake
G: Braune Wasserschlange, Braune Schwimmnatter 
SynonymColuber taxispilotus HOLBROOK 1838: 113
Tropidonotus taxispilotus HOLBROOK 1843: 35 (fide DUMÉRIL et al. 1854)
Nerodia taxispilota — BAIRD & GIRARD 1853: 43
Tropidonotus taxispilotus — DUMÉRIL, BIBRON & DUMÉRIL 1854: 605
Tropidonotus taxispilotus — GARMAN 1884: 26
Natrix taxispilota — COPE 1889: 392
Tropidonotus taxispilotus — BOULENGER 1893: 245
Natrix taxispilota — LOENNBERG 1894
Natrix taxispilota — CLAY 1938
Natrix taxispilota — CLIBURN 1956
Nerodia taxispilota — CONANT & COLLINS 1991: 148
Nerodia taxispilota — CROTHER 2000: 67
Nerodia taxispilota — ERNST & ERNST 2003: 255
Nerodia taxispilota — CROTHER et al. 2012
Nerodia taxispilota — WALLACH et al. 2014: 485 
DistributionUSA (Florida, SE Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, E North Carolina, W Virginia)

Type locality: South Carolina seaboard and the Altahama River, Georgia.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesSyntype: MCZ R-16
Holotype: ANSP 6619 [Tropidonotus taxispilotus brocki] 
Diagnosis 
CommentSubspecies: Heilprin 1887 described Tropidonotus taxispilotus brocki of unknown status (from Florida, Lake Okeechobee, Eagle Bay). 
EtymologyThe name taxispilota comes from the Greek combination taxis (meaning arrangement) and spilos (meaning spot), alluding to the dorsal pattern. 
References
  • Akeret, B. 2009. Unter und über Wasser durch die Karstgewässer Floridas. Draco 10 (37): 24-29 - get paper here
  • Baird, S. F. and C. Girard. 1853. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part 1.-Serpents. Smithsonian Inst., Washington, xvi + 172 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1893. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Burbrink FT, Futterman I. 2019. Female‐ biased gape and body-size dimorphism in the New World watersnakes (tribe: Thamnophiini) oppose predictions from Rensch's rule. Ecol Evol. 00:1–10
  • Camp, C.D., W.D. Sprewell & V.N. Powders 1980. Feeding Habits of Nerodia taxispilota with Comparative Notes on the Foods of Sympatric Congeners in Georgia Journal of Herpetology 14 (3): 301-304. - get paper here
  • Camper, Jeffrey D. 2019. The Reptiles of South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press, 288 pp. [review in Copeia 107 (3): 590, 2019] - get paper here
  • Clay, William M. 1938. A synopsis of the North American Water Snakes of the genus Natrix. Copeia 1938 (4): 173-182 - get paper here
  • Cliburn,J.W. 1956. The taxonomic relations of the water snakes Natrix taxispilota and rhombifera. Herpetologica 12: 198-200 - get paper here
  • Conant,R. & Collins,J.T. 1991. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern/Central North America, 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin (Boston/New York), xx + 450 p.
  • Crother, B. I. (ed.) 2012. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians, Seventh Edition. Herpetological Circular 39: 1-92
  • Enge, Kevin M. 2009. Venomous and non-venomous snakes of Florida. Publication of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. 16 pp.
  • Ernst, C.H. & Ernst, E.M. 2003. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, 668 pp.
  • Ernst, C.H., & Barbour, R.W. 1989. Snakes of eastern North America. George Mason Univ. Press, Fairfax, VA 282 pp.
  • Garman, Samuel 1884. The reptiles and batrachians of North America. Mem. Mus. comp. Zool, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 8 (3): xxxiv + 185 pp. [1883] [CNAH reprint 10] - get paper here
  • Gibbons, J. W. & Mike Dorcas 2004. North American Water Snakes. University of Oklahoma Press, 496 pp.
  • Gosser, Allen L.;Kennamer, Lee F.;Dobie, James L. 1996. Distribution of Nerodia taxispilota and Nerodia rhombifer in Alabama. Herpetological Review 27 (4): 217 - get paper here
  • Guyer, Craig; Mark A. Bailey, and Robert H. Mount 2018. Lizards and snakes of Alabama. University of Alabama Press, 397 pp. - get paper here
  • Guyton, K., II, Pless, A. & Lorenz, O.T. 2018. Nerodia taxispilota (Brown Watersnake) Predator inspection by fish. Herpetological Review 49 (1): 136-137. - get paper here
  • GUZMAN-VARGAS, V., J. L. ALEXANDER, H. M. A. FENTON, K. D. NIEDRINGHAUS, M. C. ALLENDER, AND L. A. SHENDER 2020. Ophidiomycosis in Florida’s Wild Snakes: State Records and Treatment of an Infected Nerodia taxispilota. Herpetological Review 51: 47-51.
  • Holbrook, John E. 1838. North American Herpetology, Vol. 2 (1st ed.). J. Dobson, Philadelphia, 130 pp. - get paper here
  • Holbrook, Joshua D. 2013. Nerodia taxispilota (brown watersnake) diet. Herpetological Review 44 (2): 333 - get paper here
  • Howell, Hunter J.; Madison E.A. Harman 2021. Attempted predation of Siren lacertina (Linnaeus, 1776) and Nerodia taxispilota (Holbrook 1838) and a review of herpetofaunal mortality in collapsible mesh-minnow traps. Herpetology Notes 14: 21-26 - get paper here
  • Jensen, John B.; Carlos D. Camp, Whit Gibbons, & Matt J. Elliott 2008. Amphibians and reptiles of Georgia. University of Georgia Press, 575 pp.
  • Kleopfer, John and Chad Boyce. 2016. Nerodia taxispilota (Brown Watersnake) Predation. Herpetological Review 47 (1): 150 - get paper here
  • Lawson, R. 1987. Molecular studies of Thamnophiine snakes: 1. The phylogeny of the genus Nerodia. Journal of Herpetology 21 (2): 140-157 - get paper here
  • Linzey, D.W., & Clifford, M.J. 1981. Snakes of Virgina. Univ. Press of Virginia, Charlottesville 159 pp.
  • Lönnberg, Einar 1894. Notes on reptiles and batrachians collected in Florida in 1892 and 1893. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 17 (1003): 317-339 - get paper here
  • McCranie J R 1983. Nerodia taxispilota (Holbrook). Brown water snake. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles ( 331: 1-2 - get paper here
  • Mehrtens, J.M. 1987. Living snakes of the world in color. Sterling Publ. Co., hic., New York, NY: 480 pp.
  • Mills, M.S., C.J. Hudson & H.J. Berna 1995. Spatial Ecology and Movements of the Brown Water Snake (Nerodia taxispilota) Herpetologica 51 (4): 412-423. - get paper here
  • Mitchell, J. C. & Reay, K.K. 1999. Atlas of amphibians and reptiles in Virginia. Specialty Publication 1, VA Dept of Game and Fisheries, 122 pp. - get paper here
  • Mitchell, J.C. 1994. The reptiles of Virginia. Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, ca. 350 pp.
  • Mitchell, J.C. & G.R. Zug 1984. Spermatogenic Cycle of Nerodia taxispilota (Serpentes: Colubridae) in Southcentral Virginia Herpetologica 40 (2): 200-204. - get paper here
  • Palmer, W.M. & Braswell, A.L. 1995. Reptiles of North Carolina. Univ. North Carolina Press
  • Perry, David A. 2013. Virginia Herpetological Society Survey of Back Bay NWR and False Cape State Park. Catesbeiana 33 (2): 48-61 - get paper here
  • Rossman, Douglas A.; Boundy, Jeff. 2007. A previously undescribed bone in the snout of the Brown Watersnake, Nerodia taxispilota. Herpetological Review 38 (3): 280-282 - get paper here
  • Serb, Jeanne M.;Petzing, John E. 1998. Geographic Distribution. Nerodia taxispilota. Herpetological Review 29 (1): 54 - get paper here
  • Siegel, Dustin S.; Stanley E. Trauth, Justin L. Rheubert, Brian Rabe, Brenton Ruopp, Aurélien Miralles, Christopher M. Murray, and Robert D. Aldridge 2014. Novel Cloacal Glands in Snakes: The Phylogenetic Distribution of Ventral Urodaeal Glands in Thamnophiini. Herpetologica 70 (3): 279-289. - get paper here
  • STEVENSON, DIRK J. et al. 2021. New County Records for Amphibians and Reptiles in Georgia, USA. Herpetological Review 52 (2): 350-359
  • Storm, Paul 2013. Picture: Nerodia taxispilota, VS, Florida. Litteratura Serpentium 33 (4): 330 - get paper here
  • Tennant, A. 2003. Snakes of North America - Eastern and Central Regions, revised edition. Lone Star Books, 605 pp.
  • Tennant, A. & Bartlett, R.D. 2000. Snakes of North America - Eastern and Central Regions. Gulf Publishing, Houston, TX, 588 pp.
  • Thomas, Travis M., Eric Suarez and Kevin M. Enge. 2015. New county records of reptiles from the Suwannee River, Florida, USA. Herpetological Review 46 (4): 608 - get paper here
  • Turk, E., Sloan, A. & Steen, D.A. 2018. Nerodia taxispilota (Brown Watersnake) Predation. Herpetological Review 49 (1): 136. - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • White, D.R., J.C. Mitchell & W.S. Woolcott 1982. Reproductive Cycle and Embryonic Development of Nerodia taxispilota (Serpentes: Colubridae) at the Northeastern Edge of its Range Copeia 1982 (3): 646-652. - get paper here
 
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