Western hognose snake
species of reptile
The western hognose snake (Heterodon nasicus) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to North America. There are three subspecies that are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.
Etymology
The specific name, nasicus, is derived from the Latin nasus ("nose"), a reference to the snake's upturned snout.
The dusky hognose's subspecific name, gloydi, is in honor of American herpetologist Howard K. Gloyd (1902–1978).
The Mexican hognose's subspecific (or specific) name, kennerlyi, is in honor of American naturalist Caleb Burwell Rowan Kennerly.
Common names
Common names for Heterodon nasicus include blow snake, bluffer, plains hognose snake, prairie hognose snake, spoonbill snake, spreadhead snake, Texas hognose snake, Texas rooter, and western hognose snake.
Taxonomy
Some authors elevate the subspecies Heterodon nasicus kennerlyi, also known as the Mexican hognose snake, to species level. Those same authors have subsumed H. n. gloydi into H. nasicus so that there are only two species (H. nasicus and H. kennerlyi) and no subspecies.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Western hognose snake” is species of reptile. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Western, hognose and snake, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of reptile” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1441196. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1902 and 1978.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Western hognose snake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.