''Lampropeltis calligaster'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

kingsnake Kingsnakes are colubrid New World members of the genus ''Lampropeltis'', which includes 26 species. Among these, about 45 subspecies are recognized. They are nonvenomous and ophiophagous in diet. Description Kingsnakes vary widely in size and ...

known commonly as the prairie kingsnake or yellow-bellied kingsnake.

Geographic range

Prairie kingsnakes are found mostly in the

midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

and

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

although they can be found in other areas. Their additional range extends west from southeast Nebraska to eastern Texas.

Description

It is light

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

in color, with dark grey, dark

, or

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

dish-brown blotching down the length of their bodies. They are capable of growing to lengths of . They are easily mistaken for various species of

rat snake Rat snakes are members – along with kingsnakes, milk snakes, vine snakes and indigo snakes – of the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae. They are medium to large constrictors and are found throughout much of the Northern Hemi ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Pantherophis ''Pantherophis'' is a genus of nonvenomous colubrid snakes endemic to central and eastern regions of North America. It consists of the North American ratsnakes, the foxsnakes, and the cornsnakes. The genus, which contains 10 recognized spec ...

'', which share habitat, and can have similar markings. Some specimens have their markings faded, to appear almost a solid brown color. Juveniles usually have a brown stripe down the back of their bodies. They have two black spots behind the head and smaller black spots down the back on both sides of the stripe.

Behavior

Prairie kingsnakes' preferred habitat is open

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

with loose, dry soil, typically on the edge of a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed region, not far from a permanent source of water. Their

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

consists primarily of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

s, but they will also consume lizards,

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

s and occasionally other

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s. They are nonvenomous, and typically docile. Like most

colubrid Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on ev ...

s, if harassed they will shake their

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammal ...

, which if in dry leaf litter can sound remarkably like a rattlesnake. They are not typically prone to biting, and if handled will often excrete a foul-smelling

musk Musk ( Persian: مشک, ''Mushk'') is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial sub ...

. When threatened, they flatten and appear to have white spots.

Habitat

They are often found in abandoned structures, underneath logs, debris, and inside of tree trunks. They are typically unseen by people not searching for them due to their secretive nature. The mole kingsnake is fossorial as their name would suggest. However, when they are found aboveground they are found in open areas such as fields, cultivated lands, thickets, and edge habitats.

Reproduction

Elements of the mole kingsnake's reproduction corresponds, in part, to the general colubrid mating pattern. Egg laying has been reported in June through July, with clutch sizes ranging from 6 - 17 eggs.

References

Florida Museum of Natural History: ''Lampropeltis calligaster rhombomaculata''Prairie Kingsnake
Reptiles and Amphibians of Iowa {{DEFAULTSORT:Lampropeltis Calligaster calligaster Endemic fauna of the United States Reptiles of the United States Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States) Fauna of the Southeastern United States Reptiles described in 1827 Taxa named by Richard Harlan