Description: A small snake (total length: 38 - 50 cm [15 - 20 in.]). The dorsal color is gray to tan with scattered dark blotches, and the ventral surface is white and unmarked. A greatly enlarged scale (the leaf) is present on the tip of the snout. In southern Nevada, another snake with an enlarged scale on the tip of its snout is called the Western patch-nosed snake (Salvadora hexalepis), and the dorsum is striped, not blotched. Also, the habit of the Western leaf-nosed snake is nocturnal, whereas the Western patch-nosed snake is diurnal.
Diet: Feeds on geckos, and probably other lizards, that it encounters in rodent burrows.
Habitat: Mojave desert scrub and salt desert scrub habitats in sandy flats.
Range: This species occurs in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, southward
into Mexico. The subspecies in Nevada (the Western leaf-nosed snake,
Phyllorhynchus decurtatus perkinsi) occurs in southeastern California,
southern Nevada, southwestern Arizona, and northwestern Mexico. In Clark
County, Nevada, this species probably is widely distributed in the appropriate habitat.