Talk:List of snakes in Kansas

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[edit] Naming convention

After arriving here from the cottonmouth disambiguation page, I noticed that all of the names in this list are common names. This is not very accurate, since many of those names will link to disambiguation pages and some snakes even share the same common names. It's therefore better to always link to the scientific names, even if they are only redirects. Example: list of viperine species and subspecies. --Jwinius 12:10, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Venomous?

I moved the two hognosed snakes, Heterodon nasicus and H. platirhinos to the non-venomous section. These snakes may have enlarged maxillary teeth, but their saliva is really no more toxic than human saliva (see Are Hognosed Snakes venomous?). Members of the genus Hypsiglena (night snakes), however, do have venom glands, so you could argue that they are venomous, but they are not considered dangerous to humans (see Hypsiglena torquata). Therefore, whether or not you want to include them in this article's Venomous section depends on your point of view. --Jwinius 12:10, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't even call Heterodon mildly venomous, since the same can be said for so many other colubrids. For example, I'm pretty sure Thamnophis have more toxic saliva than Heterodon. --Jwinius 10:50, 12 August 2007 (UTC)