southern part of its range is occupied by the nominotypical subspecies, Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus melanocephalus Jan, 1862. Populations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, northeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran form the subspecies, Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus satunini Nikolsky, 1899. Habitats and ecology This snake is known from rocky, clayey semideserts. It spends most of its time underground, and rarely may be found under rocks after heavy rains in spring and early summer. Land use and protection Habitats of the black-headed ground snake have been largely irrigated or transformed into urban areas. Also, in many places, semidesert is being used as pasture for domestic goats, sheep, and cattle. Conservation status This species is classified as Least Concern (LC) according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but was included in the Red Lists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the former USSR as an extremely rare species. References Further reading Aghasyan AL. 1996. [The Fauna of Snakes of Armenia and Nakhichevan]. Yerevan: PhD Thesis. 34 pp.(in Russian). Ananjeva NB, Borkin LYa, Darevsky IS, Orlov NL, 1998. [Encyclopedia of Russian Nature: Amphibians and Reptiles]. Moscow: ABF Publishing. 351 pp. (in Russian). Ananjeva, NB, Orlov NL, Khalikov RG, Darevsky IS, Rjabov SA, Barabanov AV. 2004. [Atlas of Reptiles of Northern Eurasia]. St. Petersburg, Russia: "Ivan Fedorov" Print. 230 pp. (in Russian). Arakelyan MS, Danielyan FD, Corti C, Sindaco R, Leviton AE. 2011. Herpetofauna of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Oxford, Ohio: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. . Boulenger GA. 1894. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xi + 377 pp. + Plates I.- XX. (Oligodon melanocephalus, p. 246). Darevsky IS. 1957. [The Fauna of Reptiles of Armenia and Its Zoogeographical Analysis]. Yerevan: PhD Thesis. 468 pp. (in Russian). Darevsky IS. 1970. "Systematic status of Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus satunini Nik. (Serpentes, Colubridae) previously included in the genus Oligodon". Zool. Zhurnal 49: 1685–1690. Jan G. 1862. "Enumerazione sistematica delle specie d'ofidi del gruppo Calamaridae". Archivio per la zoologia l'anatomia e la fisiologia 2: 1-76. (Homalosoma melanocephalum, p. 54). (in Italian). Jan G. 1865. Iconographie générale des ophidiens. Treizième livraison. Paris: J-B Baillière. Index + Plates I- VI. (Homalosoma melanocephalum, Plate III, Figures 4 & 4a). (in French). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340847706_Discovery_of_the_Black-headed_Ground_Snake_Rhynchocalamus_melanocephalus_Jan_1862_in_Cyprus_Reptilia_Colubridae External links Rhynchocalamus melanocephalus at Tadevosyan's Herpetological Resources. Accessed 20 January 2007. Colubrids Snakes of Asia Fauna of Western