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Middle American Burrowing Snake

Adelphicos quadrivirgatum Jan, 1862

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Jan's Earth Snake, Adelphicos quadrivirgatus quadrivirgatus (a subspecies of the Middle American Burrowing Snake). 1 Oct 2006. Estación Biológica Los Tuxtlas, Sierra de los Tuxtlas, VER.

Jan's Earth Snake, Adelphicos quadrivirgatus quadrivirgatus (a subspecies of the Middle American Burrowing Snake). 1 Oct 2006. Estación Biológica Los Tuxtlas, Sierra de los Tuxtlas, VER.

Cole Wolf from Albuquerque, NM, USA · CC BY 2.0 · Image source

Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

Adelphicos quadrivirgatum, also known commonly as the Middle American burrowing snake and la zacatera de Jan in New World Spanish, is a species of snake in the subfamily Dipsadinae of the family Colubridae. The species is native to Mexico and Central America.

Wikipedia contributors, Adelphicos quadrivirgatum; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:03:40.056672+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Adelphicos quadrivirgatum Jan, 1862
Name authority
Jan, 1862
Common name
Middle American Burrowing Snake
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Reptilia
Order
Squamata
Family
Colubridae
Genus
Adelphicos
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
  9. orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
  10. suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
  11. infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
  12. familyColubridae
  13. subfamilyDipsadinae
  14. genusAdelphicos
  15. speciesAdelphicos quadrivirgatum Jan, 1862

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Adelphicos. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Sargi’s earth SnakeAdelphicos sargii (Fischer, 1885)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Dary's Burrowing SnakeAdelphicos daryi Campbell & Ford, 1982ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Adelphicos ibarrorum Campbell & Brodie, 1988ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Oaxacan Burrowing SnakeAdelphicos latifasciatum Lynch & Smith, 1966ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Burrowing SnakeAdelphicos nigrilatum Smith, 1942ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 1,632 records assigned to Colubridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Adelphicus quadrivirgatum acutirostrum Bocourt, 1883 Bocourt, 1883synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Mexico (Chiapas, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Quéretaro, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz), Belize, Guatemala, Honduras; elevation (Honduras): 0-1740 m, Nicaragua

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Adelphicos&species=quadrivirgatum Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:9YMN. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.