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California Kingsnake (Lampropeltis californiae)

[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2096″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]California Kingsnake, Gila Bend area, AZ. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2267″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]California Kingsnake (“yumensis” form) near Yuma. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2268″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]A dark California Kingsnake (“yumensis” form) near Tacna, AZ. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2273″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Very dark California Kingsnake (“yumensis” form) near Yuma, AZ eating mouse. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2272″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]See the September 2013 Sonoran Herpetologist about this image. Tucson. ©2013 Dancing Snake Nature Photography[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2271″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]See the September 2013 Sonoran Herpetologist about this image. Tucson. ©2013 Dancing Snake Nature Photography[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2270″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Battling California Kingsnake and Coachwhip. Pinal Co., AZ. See Sonoran Herpetologist 2002 (Sep):102-103. Photo by Roger A. Repp[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2269″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]California Kingsnake, Photo by Young Cage[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Description

The California Kingsnake is a robust and moderate to large snake (< 2160 mm total length, but probably most are < 1422 mm in Arizona).  The head is only slightly differentiated from the neck, dorsal scales are smooth, glossy, and in 23-25 rows, the anal plate is undivided, and the subcaudals are divided. Ventral scales number 213-255 in males and females, subcaudals number 46-63 in males and 44-57 in females. This is a distinctive snake and only likely to be confused with the Desert Kingsnake, which has much lateral and dorsolateral speckling (see below).

Until recently, all kingsnakes in Arizona (excluding the mountain kingsnakes) were considered to be one species (Common Kingsnake, L getula). Recent publications recognized three subspecies in Arizona, and these were distinguished from one another based primarily on color patterns:

Desert Kingsnake: (L.g. splendida): A black or dark brown ground color with heavy yellow lateral and dorsolateral speckling. Forty-two to 97 black or brown dorsal blotches or saddles run from the head onto the tail. The head is typically black or dark brown with yellow speckling on the sides and anterior to the eyes.  Juveniles have bold, distinct blotches with minimal speckling.  This form occurs in southeastern Arizona.

California Kingsnake (L.g. californiae): A black or dark brown dorsal ground color with 21–44  broad to narrow crossbands of white or light yellow that usually widen on the sides of the snake. Some snakes in California are striped. In most forms, the head is predominantly white anterior to the eyes and on the sides, otherwise it is black to brown. The California Kingsnake is distributed throughout much of Arizona.

Mexican Black Kingsnake (L.g. nigrita): The dorsum of the body and tail is dark gray to black, with few or no light markings; the venter is the same color except for a light-colored vent. Juveniles resemble the Desert Kingsnake. The Mexican Black Kingsnake reportedly occurs in the borderlands of southeastern Arizona.

A fourth subspecies was once recognized (Yuma Kingsnake, L.g. yumensis) but was subsumed into the California Kingsnake: Deep brown or black dorsally with narrow white bands, those bands often broadening on the sides of the snake and showing dark speckling. The head is black with varying amounts of light specking on the sides and anterior to the eyes.  This form occurs in southwestern Arizona south of the Bill Williams River and extends along the Gila River Valley to the Phoenix area.

Using mitochondrial DNA, Pyron and Burbrink (2009a&b) split the Common Kingsnake into five species, including elevating the Desert and California Kingsnakes to species. No subspecies are currently recognized in Arizona; and the name Lampropeltis getula is now limited to the Eastern Kingsnake (formerly L.g. getula).  Pyron and Burbrink’s sampling was inadequate to determine with any precision the ranges of the Desert and California Kingsnakes in Arizona.  Nor did they have samples of the Mexican Black Kingsnake or the Yuma Kingsnake.  They relegated those two forms to pattern variants of the California Kingsnake, although they acknowledge that the status of the former is unresolved and some authors group the Mexican Black Kingsnake with the Desert Kingsnake. They further acknowledge that hybridization may occur between some of the adjacent species of kingsnake. Other authors have often noted intermediate forms in Arizona, and the various forms readily breed in captivity and produce viable offspring. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analysis, Krysko et al. (2017) found the Mexican Black Kingsnake in Sonora to be distinct from other species in the L. getula Complex. They elevated that form to L. nigrita. However, they did not have samples from Arizona.

Until samples from Arizona can be analyzed genetically, black kingsnakes north of the U.S./Mexico border are treated here as part of the Desert Kingsnake (L. splendida) because in Arizona they are both limited to southeastern Arizona, apparent hybrids or intergrades of these two forms are commonly found there, and both have juveniles that are patterned differently than the adults (juvenile California Kingsnakes look like small adults).

In the 100-Mile Circle, the California Kingsnake occurs in Sonoran desertscrub, Chihuahuan desertscrub, semi-desert grassland, and probably into the lower elevations of oak woodland.  It is a species of valleys and bajadas, and low desert mountains. Pyron and Burbrink (2009a&b) had samples of this species from southeastern Cochise County, western Santa Cruz County, Pima County in the vicinity of Tucson, and Maricopa County at Phoenix.  It extends through the western deserts into California, and is even present, although rare in arid Sonoran desertscrub along Highway 95 in Yuma County, and Ogilby Road in eastern Imperial County, California. However, in arid regions it is more common along riparian corridors and in agriculture. The strongly black and white banded forms are more common to the north of Tucson and into the Phoenix area and southwest to Gila Bend. To the west of Tucson, specimens are darker, and some snakes in the Yuma area are almost black.  California Kingsnakes at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument have more dark than light in the pattern, and the white bands broaden on the sides (T.J. Tibbitts, pers. comm., 2013). The “yumensis” form often has much dark speckling in the lighter bands. The distribution of this species in Sonora is poorly known, but the author has observed a strongly banded specimen near Magdalena, Sonora, and presumably it occurs in the Northwest near the Arizona border and in the Río Colorado Valley (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016).

This species is active by day or night, and is seasonally most active May through September. Most are found on the ground, but they climb exceedingly well. A remote video camera on the Gila River in Pinal County recorded one of these snakes climbing into a tree to raid the nest of an endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. The snake consumed three Flycatcher nestlings and a nestling Brown Cowbird.  The California Kingsnake is a prey generalist, and will consume rodents, frogs, birds, lizards, snakes, small turtles, and the eggs of birds and reptiles. It even eats venomous snakes; the California Kingsnake and its allies are relatively immune to rattlesnake and coralsnake venoms. Rosen (2016) observed a California Kingsnake and a Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake both preying on the same nest of Desert Cottontails at the West Branch of the Santa Cruz River south of Tucson. The kingsnake consumed one of the nestlings while the rattlesnake ate three.  A clutch of 2-12 eggs is laid in spring or summer.  In a captive colony of California Kingsnakes from Arizona and California, clutch size ranged from 2 to 9 and averaged 6.3 (13 clutches). Incubated at room temperatures, the clutches hatched in 51-78 days (Zweifel 1980). This species will often bite when first captured, but quickly becomes tame.  When confronted by an attacker, it not uncommonly coils and rattles its tail, and sometimes strike.

Four kingsnakes (Lampropeltis splendida and L. californiae) can be captured per year or held in possession with a valid Arizona hunting license. The conservation status of this species has not been evaluated by the IUCN, but Lampropeltis getula is listed as a species of least concern on that organization’s Red List.

Suggested Reading:

Brennan, T.C., and A.T. Holycross. 2006. Amphibians and Reptiles in Arizona. Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, AZ.

Ernst, C.H., and E.M. Ernst. 2003. Snakes of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C.

Krysko, K.L., L.P. Nunez, C.E. Newman, and B.W. Bowen. 2017. Phylogenetics of kingsnakes, Lampropeltis getula Complex (Serpentes: Colubridae), in eastern North America. Journal of Heredity 2017:1-13.

Pyron, R.A. and F.T. Burbrink. 2009a. Systematics of the Common Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula; Serpentes: Colubridae) and the burden of heritage in taxonomy. Zootaxa 2241:22–32.

Pyron, R.A. and F.T. Burbrink. 2009a. Lineage diversification in a widespread species: roles for niche divergence and conservatism in the common kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula. Molecular Ecology (2009) 18:3443–3457.

Rosen, P.C. 2016. Crotalus atrox (Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake) and Lampropeltis californiae (California Kingsnake) direct competition, Herpetological Review 47(1):144.

Rorabaugh, J.C., and J.A. Lemos Espinal. 2016. A Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Sonora, Mexico. ECO Herpetological Publishing and Distribution, Rodeo, New Mexico, USA.

Stebbins, R.C., and S.M. McGinnis. 2012. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California. California Natural History Guides, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Zweifel, R.G. 1980. Aspects of the biology of a laboratory population of kingsnakes. Pages 141-152 in J.B. Murphy and J.T. Collins (editors), Reproductive Biology and Diseases of Captive Reptiles. Society for the Study of Reptiles and Amphibians, Contributions to Herpetology No. 1.

Author: Jim Rorabaugh

For additional information on this species, please see the following volumes and pages in the Sonoran Herpetologist: 2002 Sep:102-103; 2013 Sep:55.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][gap size=”30px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]