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Forest Sharp-tailed Snake (Contia longicaudae)

Created: January 24th, 2015 - 02:11 PM
Last Modified: January 24th, 2015 - 02:18 PM Entered by: Alan St. John
Record 214523
Country:
United States 		State:
Oregon 		County:
Douglas County 		Time:
1985-04-24 14:30:00
Qty:
2 		Age:
Adult 		Sex:
-- 		Method:
Rock flipping 		Habitat:
By creek in mountain coniferous forest.
Body Temperature:
----- 		Air Temperature:
60.00F 		Ground Temperature:
----- 		Humidity:
-----
Sky Conditions:
Showers 		Moon Phase:
----- 		Elevation:
1500.00ft 		Barometric Pressure:
-----

Notes

While searching for salamanders along a stream in the North Umpqua River drainage, NE of Roseburg, I lifted a large, flat rock and found two adult Contia beneath it. The surrounding environment was relatively shady, being in dense fir/cedar forest, with an understory of ferns and vine-maple.

Vouchers

Comments

Posted by Alan St. John on Feb 15, 2015 at 01:27 AM

Yes, I recall way back in 1985 while editing the photos I shot of those two Contia, noticing the unusually long tails. I made a mental note to myself about delving into that further…..but totally forgot about doing so. Then in the late 1990s Richard Hoyer noted the same thing, capturing more specimens in other locations. He also did extensive comparisons of preserved Contia in museum collections, discovering several of the long-tailed kind that had been pickled in bottles for nearly a century! Everybody had overlooked the fact that an entirely different species of Contia had been right under our noses all that time, but overlooked.

Posted by Jonathan Hakim on Feb 14, 2015 at 10:05 PM

Fantastic record! I didn't expect anyone to have entered these into the database yet in Oregon, much less in a historic record where you'd have to have made the realization about what they were long after the fact. Nice work.