THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Colubridae  
Baja California Coachwhip
Masticophis fuliginosus (Cope, 1895)
MAS-tih-KOH-fiss — foo-LIH-jih-NOH-sus
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 O’Connell and Smith (2018, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 127: 356–366) support recognizing M. fuliginosus as a species. (Boundy, Jeff, Frank T. Burbrink, and Sara Ruane. 2025. Squamata (excluding lizards) – Snakes. Pages 38-54 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
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:; 485 Total; 32 Museum; 453 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,850 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: 2023.04.09.21.53.10)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its apprearance.
Masticophis — Greek mastix + ophis.
fuliginosus — Latin fuliginosus = “sooty” or “smoky” — describing its dark, dusky coloration.

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


Selected References:
1928 Ortenburger, Arthur I. The whip snakes and racers: Genera Masticophis and Coluber. Memiors of the University of Michigan Museum (1):1-247
1973 Wilson, Larry D. Masticophis.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (144):1-2
2004 Nagy, Z. T., R. Lawson, U. Joger, and M. Wink. Molecular systematics of racers, whipsnakes and relatives (Reptilia: Colubridae) using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 42:223-233
2008 Collins, Joseph T. and Travis W. Taggart. A proposal to retain Masticophis as the generic name for the Coachwhip and Whipsnakes. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (27):12
2017 O'Connell, Kyle A., Jeffrey W. Streicher, Eric N. Smith, and Matthew K. Fujita. Geographical features are the predominant driver of molecular diversification in widely distributed North American whipsnakes. Molecular Ecology 26(20):5729–5751
2018 O'Connell, Kyle A. and Eric N. Smith. The effect of missing data on coalescent species delimitation and a taxonomic revision of whipsnakes (Colubridae: Masticophis). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 127(2018):356-366

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 09 October 2026 23:59 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 248,607 human page views • 136,361 visitors • 124,769 file accesses