Baja California Lyre Snake Trimorphodon lyrophanes  Cope, 1860
An adult specimen from Santa Barbara County, California Image © Patrick H. Briggs, 2008
Taxonomic Comments:
Grismer et al. (1994 Bull. .Southern California Acad. Sci. 93(2): 45-80) synonymized the subspecies Trimorphodon biscutatus vandenburghi with the subspecies T. b. lyrophanes. Devitt, Thomas J., Travis J. LaDuc & Jimmy A. McGuire. The Trimorphodon biscutatus (Squamata: Colubridae) Species Complex Revisited: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis of Geographic Variation. Copeia. 2008(2): 370-387) recommended that this evolutionary lineage be recognized as a distinct species. They recommended that the common name Peninsular Lyre Snake be adopted, a shorter name than the formerly-used Baja California Lyre Snake; in this, CNAH concurs -- a shorter name is always preferable. Collins & Taggart (2009 Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. Sixth Edition) submitted for consideration the proposal by DeVitt et al. (2008 op. cit.) to a snake systematist group composed of Frank T. Burbrink, Jeff Camper, Michael Douglas, Harry W. Greene, Toby Hibbitts, Robin Lawson, James R. McCranie, Brice P. Noonan, Christopher L. Parkinson, Theodora Pinou, R. Alexander Pyron, Javier A. Rodriguez-Robles, and Van Wallach, and a majority of those responding agreed.