Prairie Kingsnake

(Lampropeltis calligaster)

Color Photograph: Jeff Boundy, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

Color Photographs courtesy of L.A. Dawson, Creative Common Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5.

Prairie Kingsnake (Lampropeltis calligaster)

Identification: Snake 30 to 52 inches in length. A slender snake with variable coloration and maculation. Color most commonly brown with a slight reddish tinge, but also gray-brown, tan, or yellow-brown. Dorsal surface with a series of rectangular saddles and each side with two alternating, irregular rows of spots. Head usually with a v-shaped mark on the crown, although this mark may be weak to absent. All markings sometimes obscured by dark coloration in older individuals. Anal plate single. Scales smooth.

Geographical variation:

Prairie Kingsnake (L. c. calligaster): Scales in 25 or 27 rows. The space between dorsal saddles is about equal in width to the saddle; belly white to yellow. Range: The western part of the distribution of this species; from Illinois in the north southward to southwestern Louisiana, extending in the west to eastern Kansas most of Oklahoma and the eastern half of Texas.

Mole Snake (L. c. rhombomaculata): Scales in 21 or 23 rows. Saddles narrower than the spaces inbetween them; belly yellow with brown rectangles. Range: Maryland southward to northern Florida and westward to Tennessee and southeastern Louisiana.

South Florida Mole Snake (L. c. occipitolineata): The ground color is gray to tan-orange with 60-79 round, oval, or odd shaped red to red-orange blotches edged with black. Range: Central Florida.

Range (see map on left): This species occurs from Maryland in the east, southward to northern Florida and westward through the southeastern states to central Texas. The western part of its range extends northward from Texas throughout Oklahoma and eastern Kansas to most of Illinois.

Habitat: The Prairie Kingsnake is found in a wide variety of mostly open habitats including fields, pastures, prairie, farmland, and open woods.

Food: A variety of prey including birds, frogs, rodents, lizards, and other, smaller snakes.

Behavior: This snake is mostly nocturnal spending the daytime under rocks, buried in loose dirt, or in mammal burrows. It is mild tempered.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 5 to 17 eggs laid in a cavity in the soil. The eggs are laid between June and July.

Prairie Kingsnake (Lampropeltis calligaster)

Similar Species:

The Prairie Kingsnake, because of its variability, resembles several species of the genus Elaphe. It is typically a more slender snake, but more importantly the anal plate is single, not divided as it is in the species of Elaphe. Some of these Elaphe species are:

Slowinski's Corn Snake (Elaphe slowinskii)

Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata)

Great Plains Rat Snake (Elphae emoryi)