Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula getula)

Eastern Kingsnake
Photograph by LA Dawson. Some rights reserved. (view image details)

EASTERN KINGSNAKE FACTS

Description
The Eastern Kingsnake is brown or black with 20 - 45 white or yellow crossbands in chain-like pattern. The underside is checkered black and white, or solid black. The scales are smooth. Juveniles are similar in color to adults. The Eastern Kingsnake is mainly terrestrial and active during the day. The head is blunt shaped, brown or black with white or cream markings.

Size
length 90cm - 120cm. Can grow to 200cm

Environment
coniferous forest, deciduous forest, prairies, marshes, edges of estuaries.

Food
eats other snakes including rattlesnakes, lizards, frogs, rodents, birds and birds eggs.

Breeding
Eastern King Snakes are oviparous, laying small clutches of 3 - 29 eggs. The eggs hatch in late summer after about 2 months incubation. Newborns are about 12cm - 20cm long.

Range
found in eastern United States in Florida, and from southern Alabama to southern New Jersey.

Notes
The Eastern Kingsnake is non-venomous and harmless to humans - it seldom bites.

Classification

Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata (Serpentes)
Family:	Colubridae
Genus:	Lampropeltis
Species:	getula getula
Common Name:	Eastern Kingsnake

Relatives in same Genus
  Gray-banded Kingsnake (L. alterna)
  Prairie Kingsnake (L. calligaster calligaster)
  Mole Kingsnake (L. calligaster rhombomaculata)
  California Kingsnake (L. getula californiae)
  Florida Kingsnake (L. getula floridana)
  Speckled Kingsnake (L. getula holbrooki)
  Desert Kingsnake (L. getula splendida)
  Mexican Kingsnake (L. mexicana mexicana)
  Mexican Milk Snake (L. triangulum annulata)
  Pueblan Milk Snake (L. triangulum campbelli)
  Scarlet Kingsnake (L. triangulum elapsoides)
  Honduran Milk Snake (L. triangulum hondurensis)
  Nelson's Milk Snake (L. triangulum nelsoni)
  Sinaloan Milk Snake (L. triangulum sinaloae)
  Red Milk Snake (L. triangulum syspila)
  Milk Snake (L. triangulum triangulum)
  San Diego Mountain Kingsnake (L. zonata pulchra)

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