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Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  
California Glossy Snake
Arizona occidentalis Blanchard, 1924
AIR-ih-ZOH-nah — ok-sih-den-TAH-liss
Taxon Links
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Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
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USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.
Errata/Changes: Wood et al. (2025, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 213: 108441) recognized the western, short-tailed lineage of the former A. elegans complex as A. occidentalis. The former A. e. occidentalis did not constitute a genetically cohesive lineage, and the traditional western subspecies A. e. candida, A. e. eburnata, and A. e. noctivaga were placed in the synonymy of A. occidentalis. Genetic structure within A. occidentalis corresponded more closely to the San Joaquin, Mojave, and Sonoran Desert biomes than to the former subspecies, and the authors recommended that these lineages be treated as evolutionary significant units rather than subspecies.

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 5,460 Total; 3,945 Museum; 1,515 Other

The locality database contains 8,248,810 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2026.07.28.08.42.10)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona California Nevada New Mexico Utah

Taxonomic Etymology:
Arizona — Named after the U.S. state of Arizona, where the type specimen was likely collected or where the species is prominently found. The name Arizona itself is of uncertain origin, but it may derive from the O'odham (a Uto-Aztecan language) phrase "alĭ ṣonak", meaning “small spring.” In taxonomic use, Arizona as a genus name simply denotes a geographic reference. So, Arizona = “from Arizona”
occidentalis — From Latin occidens, “west” or “western,” referring to the species’ broad distribution across the western United States.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1924 Blanchard, Frank N. A new snake of the genus Arizona. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (150):1-3
1959 Dixon, James R. Geographic variation and distribution of the long-tailed group of the Glossy Snake, Arizona elegans Kennicott. The Southwestern Naturalist 4:20-29
1971 Fleet, Robert R. and James R. Dixon. Geographic variation within the long-tailed group of the glossy snake, Arizona elegans Kennicott. Herpetologica 27(3):295-302
2025 Wood, Dustin A., Jonathan Q. Richmond, Michael F. Westphal, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, Robert N. Fisher, and Amy G. Vandergast. Desert ecosystems shape diversification in glossy snakes (genus Arizona) requiring a re-alignment of evolutionary and conservation units. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 213(2025):108441

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