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Desert Kingsnake (Lampropeltis splendida)

[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2102″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake, western bajada of the Dragoon Mountains, 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=”2317″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake (“nigrita” form). Photo by Young Cage[/vc_column_text][gap size=”12px” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2318″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake (“nigrita” form) NW of Nogales. 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=”2320″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake, near Sonoita, AZ. 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=”2319″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake, near Sonoita, 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=”2321″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake (“nigrita” or “nigrita” X typical splendida), Saint David, AZ. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2322″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”img_link_large”][vc_column_text]Desert Kingsnake (“nigrita” form), juvenile, southern Sonora. Photo by Jim Rorabaugh[/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 Desert Kingsnake (Lampropeltis splendida) is a robust and moderate to large snake (< 1520 mm total length, probably most are < 1200 mm in Arizona). The head is only slightly differentiated from the neck, dorsal scales are smooth, glossy, and typically in 23-25 rows (21 in New Mexico), the anal plate is undivided, and the subcaudals are divided. Ventral scales number 199-227 in males and 203-237 in females, and subcaudals range from 45-62 in males and 40-52 in females. The only other snake in the 100-Mile Circle with which the Desert Kingsnake is likely to be confused is the California Kingsnake (L. californiae), which always shows banding in the pattern, as described 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 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 speckling 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. Krysko et al. (2017), using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analysis, showed that Mexican Black Kingsnakes from Sonora, Mexico were distinct from other forms.  They elevated that taxon to L. nigrita. However, they did not have samples from Arizona.

Until additional samples from Arizona can be analyzed, the black form of kingsnake found north of the U.S./Mexico border is included here with the Desert Kingsnake because both occur in southeastern Arizona, specimens with intermediate patterns are not uncommonly found, and both have juvenile coloration and patterning that differs from the adult (juvenile California Kingsnakes look like small adults). However, L. nigrita may very well occur in the southeastern Arizona borderlands.

Pyron and Burbrink (2009a) and Krysko et al. (2017) only show the Desert Kingsnake in eastern Cochise County and southern Graham and Greenlee Counties. However, that does not match the distribution of museum specimens labelled as L.g. splendida or observations of this species, which extend westward to Tucson, about 50 km northwest of Tucson, the Santa Cruz drainage south of Tucson, and as the black form of kingsnake in the Pajarito-Atascosa Mountain range complex west of Nogales. The species also extends into the Altar Valley, where a black form was collected in the northern end of that valley, and at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, where snakes are mostly black with some light speckling (Sally Gall, pers. comm.).  Pyron and Burbrink (2009b) had three snakes from Pima County and one from Santa Cruz County in their study, but all of those typed out to the California Kingsnake.  Kingsnakes in Sonora are primarily the Mexican Black form, although in the borderlands snakes matching the California and Desert Kingsnake species are found as well (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016).

In the 100-Mile Circle, this is a snake of valleys, bajadas, and probably lower montane slopes vegetated with Sonoran desertscrub, Chihuahuan desertscrub, semi-desert grassland, Plain’s grassland, and potentially the lower edge of oak woodlands at elevations to about 1560 m. This species does well in agriculture and is not uncommon in riparian areas. It is active by day or at night, and there are records for every month of the year except January in the Circle, although most are found from May through September. This snake is usually found on the ground, but it climbs very well and can be found high into trees.

Clutches produced from Desert Kingsnakes collected outside of Arizona ranged from five to 12. Crosses of California and Desert Kingsnakes in captivity produced clutches of 2-7 eggs (35 clutches). The captive snakes were collected from southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora (Zweifel 1980). Matings by captives occurred mostly March to May, eggs were laid from late April to late July, and the eggs hatched 99-140 days later. A wild hatchling was found 31 July in the Sulphur Springs Valley. The diet of the Desert Kingsnake has not been rigorously investigated, but it is a powerful constrictor, and like other kingsnakes it probably takes a wide variety of vertebrates, such as rodents, lizards, snakes, birds, frogs, and reptile and bird eggs.

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.

Degenhardt, W.G., C.W. Painter, and A.H. Price. 1996. Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

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. Bowman. 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. 2009b. Lineage diversification in a widespread species: roles for niche divergence and conservatism in the common kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula. Molecular Ecology (2009) 18:3443–3457.

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.

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

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