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The Rediscovery of the Water Snake, Natrix harteri, in Western Texas, with the Description of a New Subspecies

1961; Southwestern Association of Naturalists; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3669366

1943-6262

Donald W. Tinkle, Roger Conant,

Species Distribution and Climate Change

A population of Natrix harteri is reported from the Colorado River in Coke County, Texas. Comparison with a large series of specimens from the type locality and nearby stations along the Brazos River in Palo Pinto County, Texas, in- dicates that the Coke County population is subspecifically distinct. The new race is named herein, and data are presented for the first time on the extent of variation in Natrix harteri based on a study of more than 200 specimens. Although Natrix harteri was described 20 years ago (Trapido, 1941) from the Brazos River seven miles north of Palo Pinto, Texas, and it subsequently has been found in abundance at the same locality by several herpetologists, specimens from other collecting stations have been few. Philip Harter, for whom the species was named, obtained series from Chick Bend and Fortune Bend, both upstream from the type locality, and Tinkle took one specimen just below the Possum Kingdom Dam which impounds the Brazos River ten miles northwest of Palo Pinto. Marr (1944, p. 486) reported two specimens from near Christoval on the South Fork of the Concho River, a tributary of the Colorado River, Tom Green County, Texas. Floyd E. Potter, Jr., ob- tained another specimen from the Colorado River drainage in Dove Creek, one mile west of Knickerbocker, Tom Green County, on No- vember 29, 1947. Recently one of us (Tinkle) found Natrix harteri to be abundant in the upper Colorado River at Robert Lee, Coke County, Texas. Col- lections totalling 114 specimens were made there on August 4 and 11, and October 8, 1960. Most of these are preserved in the zoology re- search collections of Texas Technological College. The other speci- mens have been distributed among a number of institutions, and these are enumerated under the heading paratypes below. The localities from the Brazos River are separated from the group of stations in the Colorado River drainage by approximately 140 miles. Much of the intervening area is unsuited as a habitat for a semi- aquatic animal, but, conversely, Natrix harteri has not been found in many apparently ecologically suitable localities in the two stream