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Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Desert Kingsnake
Lampropeltis splendida (Baird and Girard, 1853)
lam-proh-PEL-tis — splen-DEH-duh

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 See comments under L. getula.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.09.21.41.45)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.46 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona New Mexico Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Thunder Snake (Ophibolus getulus: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Chain Snake (Ophibolus getulus: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Sonora King Snake (Ophibolus getulus splendidus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Splendid King Snake (Lampropeltis getulus splendida: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Sonoran Milk Snake (Lampropeltis getulus splendida: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Sonoran King Snake (Lampropeltis getulus splendida: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part 1. Serpents. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 2(5):xvi + 172
1920 Blanchard, Frank N. A synopsis of the king snakes: Genus Lampropeltis Fitzinger. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (87):1-7
1971 Blaney, Richard M. Systematics of the Common Kingsnake, Lampropeltis getulus (Linnaeus) Dissertation. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge. 137pp.
1972 Baker, Robert J., George A. Mengden, and James J. Bull. Karyotypic studies of thirty-eight species of North American snakes . Copeia 1972(2):257-265
1973 Blaney, Richard M.. Lampropeltis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (150):1-2
1975 Dessauer, Herbert C. and F. Harvey Pough. Geographic variation of blood proteins and the systematics of kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getulus). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 50:9-12
1977 Blaney, Richard M. Systematics of the common kingsnake, Lampropeltis getulus (Linnaeus). Tulane Studies in Zoology and Botany 19(3-4):47-103
2001 Krysko, Kenneth L. Ecology, conservation, and morphological and molecular systematics of the kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula (Serpentes: Colubridae). Dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 169pp.
2009 Hubbs, Brian. Common Kingsnakes, a Natural History of Lampropeltis getula. Tricolor Books, Tempe, Arizona. pp.
2009 Pyron, R. Alexander. Systematics and Historical Biogeography of the Lampropeltinine Snakes (Serpentes: Colubridae. Dissertation. City University of New York, College of Staten Island, New York. 135pp.
2009 Pyron, R. Alexander and Frank T. Burbrink. Lineage diversification in a widespread species: Roles for niche divergence and conservatism in the Common Kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula. Molecular Ecology 18(16):3443-3457
2009 Pyron, R. Alexander and Frank T. Burbrink. Neogene diversification and taxonomic stability in the snake tribe Lampropeltini (Serpentes: Colubridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52(2):524-529
2009 Pyron, R. Alexander and Frank T. Burbrink. Systematics of the Common Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula; Serpentes: Colubridae) and the burden of heritage in taxonomy. Zootaxa 2241(1):23-32
2016 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, and Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):1-14
2017 Krysko, Kenneth L., Leroy P. Nunez, Catherine E. Newman, and Brian W. Bowen. Phylogenetics of Kingsnakes, Lampropeltis getula complex (Serpentes: Colubridae), in Eastern North America. Journal of Heredity 108(3):1-13
2020 Hillis, David M. The detection and naming of geographic variation within species. Herpetological Review 51(1):52-56
2021 Provost, Kaiya L., Edward A. Myers, Brian Tilston Smith Community phylogeographic patterns reveal how a barrier filters and structures taxa in North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 48(6):1-17
2024 Burbrink, Frank T., Edward A. Myers, R. Alexander Pyron. Understanding species limits through the formation of phylogeographic lineages. Ecology and Evolution 14(10):1-18
2024 Pillod, David S., Michelle I. Jeffries, Robert S. Arkle, and Deanna H. Olson. Climate futures for lizards and snakes in western North America may result in new species management issues Ecology and Evolution 14(10):1-23

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Wednesday 04 June 2025 09:26 CT