Crotalus lepidus - Rock rattlesnake

Meaning
Lepidus comes from the Greek word lepidotos which means "covered with scales".

English name
Rock rattlesnake

Distribution
The Rock rattlesnake ranges from southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona down into central Mexico.

Habitat
They live in a variety of habitats, like pine and oak forests, grasslands but also desert and the crossover between pine-oak and tropical deciduous forest but always in the presence of mountains and broken terrain with rocky outcrops and slides. Elevation ranges between 300 and 3000m but between 1000 and 2500m is preferred.

Description
Crotalus lepidus is a small-medium sized rattlesnake where the males usually grow to about 60-70cm, occasionally reaching the 80cm, whereas females tend to be smaller. The largest recorded specimen was 82.8cm (Klauber 1952).
This species is usually very distinctive compared to other rattlesnakes and has great variety in colour and markings. Typically they have a grey tone ground colour with dark-brown, grey or black cross bands or markings that fade in some populations by age. Most specimens have a well-defined dark postocular stripe that runs from the eye to the angle of the jaw. Compared to their size they have a small head and a large rattle.

There are four subspecies recognized:

C. l. klauberi: is found in Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and in the corner of southwestern Texas down into the western of its range in Mexico. The crossbands are usually well defined, often black, with a grey or greenish grey ground colour.
C. l. lepidus: is found from southeasten New Mexico and southwestern Texas and well into north eastern Mexico to San Luis Potosi. Their bands are often faded, especially on the front half of the body, with a grey or pinkish grey ground colour.
C. l. maculosus: found in the southeastern part of its range in Mexico in Durango and Sinaloa. This species tends to have a brown tone ground colour with darker brown spots or large blotches.
C. l. morulus: is found in the southern part of the Mexico range, Tamaulipas, Nuevo leon and Coahuila. The ground colour is often gray to gray brown with well-defined crossbands on the anterior part of the body.

Diet
Their diet tends to consist out of more then 50% in lizards, especially Sceloporus spp but also insects and centipedes, small mammals, birds and snakes are eaten.

Venom
The venom of C. lepidus varies a lot depending on geographic origin whereby some populations, like once found in Chihuahua, have neurological components similar to the Mohave toxin but overall their venom has a hemorrhagic activity. Bites often result in swelling, ecchymosis, blabs and local tissue damage.

Extra
This is a species that tends to show sexual dimorphism, the background colour of females is grey or greyish –brown, whereas the males tend to be greenish grey.