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(Sonora semiannulata)
| Identification: Upper side with smooth
(unkeeled) scales in 15 rows; coloration light brown, gray, or orange,
usually with dark crossbands; anal scale divided; maximum total length
about 48 cm (19 inches), rarely more than 35 cm (14 inches).
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Colorado Distribution:
Southeastern Colorado south of the
Arkansas River, at elevations below 5,500 feet. Secretive, usually difficult to
find.
Habitat:
Fractured shale outcroppings with
numerous platelike rocks, hillsides with many scattered flat rocks partially
imbedded in the soil, canyon bottoms, and sand blows, all in areas dominated by
shortgrass prairie. Usually found, sometimes in groups, under rocks and other
objects on the ground during daylight hours; also uses abandoned mammal
burrows.
Life History:
Females produce a clutch of eggs
between mid-June and mid-July. Hatchlings appear in late August or September.
The diet consists of spiders, scorpions, centipedes, crockets, grasshoppers, and
other insects.
Revised: July 24, 2003