Racers Coluber   Linnaeus, 1758

Taxonomic Comments:

Z. T. Nagy, Robin Lawson, U. Joger and M. Wink recently (2004) published a paper entitled "Molecular systematics of Racers, Whipsnakes and relatives (Reptilia: Colubridae) using Mitochondrial and Nuclear Markers," in the Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research (Volume 42 pages 223–233). Their taxonomic recommendations with implications for North American serpents of this genus (taken directly from the published paper) are: "We recommend restricting the usage of the name Coluber to the New World taxa currently contained within that genus. Whether the closely related Masticophis should also be included in Coluber, thus reducing the name Masticophis to a synonym of Coluber, cannot be decided on the basis of our current data." A gratis downloadable pdf of the paper by Nagy et al. is available from the CNAH PDF Library on the CNAH web site home page. Utiger Urs, Beat Schätti & Notker Helfenberger [2005. The oriental colubrine genus Coelognathus Fitzinger, 1843 and classification of Old and New World Racers and Rat Snakes (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae, Colubrinae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 12 (1): 39-60] synonymized the genus Masticophis with the genus Coluber. Collins, Joseph T. & Travis W. Taggart (2008. A proposal to retain Masticophis as the generic name for the Coachwhip and Whipsnakes. Journal of Kansas Herpetology. 27: 12) questioned the conclusions of recent studies synonymizing Masticophis with Coluber and recommended that Coluber remain distinct from Masticophis pending further research using a larger data sample from all known taxa of Coachwhips and Whipsnakes.