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Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Colubridae  

Mexican Milksnake
Lampropeltis annulata Kennicott in Cope, 1860

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 The publication date was corrected to 1860 (see Nolan, 1913, Index to the Scientific Contents of the Journal and Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: xii). This species comprises a Mexican lineage of the former L. triangulum and is of uncertain occurrence in the United States. The morphotype of L. annulata occurs throughout southern Texas, but the identity of those populations was not evaluated by Ruane et al. (2014, Systematic Biology 63: 231–250). Until further detailed evaluation, we retain L. annulata as a species that likely occurs in southern Texas that may hybridize with L. gentilis or may ultimately prove to be part of L. gentilis, as suggested by the limited sampling in Burbrink et al. (2022, Systematic Biology 71: 839–858). See Chambers and Hillis (2020, Systematic Biology 69: 184–193) for alternate views on the validity of this species as distinct from the former L. triangulum (see additional comments under L. gentilis and L. triangulum).

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.09.21.41.47)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.19 MB

Province/State Distribution:

First instance(s) of published English names:
Ringed King Snake (Ophibolus doliatus annulatus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Ringed King-snake (Lampropeltis annulatus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Mexican Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum annulata: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Mexican Milk Snake (Lampropeltis doliata annulata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1860 Cope, Edward D. Catalogue of the Colubridae in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with notes and descriptions of new species. Part 2. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 12:241-266
1860 Kennicott, Robert. Descriptions of new species of North American serpents in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 12:328-338
1913 Nolan, Edward J. An index to the scientific contents of the Journal and Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia [1817-1910] Published in commemoration of the centenary of the academy, March 21, 1912. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1415pp.
1920 Blanchard, Frank N. A synopsis of the king snakes: Genus Lampropeltis Fitzinger. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (87):1-7
1957 Tanner, Wilmer W. and Richard B. Loomis. A taxonomic and distributional study of the western subspecies of the milk snake, Lampropeltis doliata . Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 60(1):12-42
1971 Williams, Kenneth L. Systematics of the colubrid snake Lampropeltis triangulum Lacepede. Dissertation. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. 458pp.
1971 Williams, Kenneth L. The status of the snake name Coluber eximius. Journal of Herpetology 5(3-4):191
1973 Blaney, Richard M.. Lampropeltis. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (150):1-2
1978 Williams, Kenneth L. Systematics and natural history of the American milk snake, Lampropeltis traingulum. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology (2):1-258
1988 Williams, Kenneth L. Systematics and Natural History of the American Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum. 2nd Revised Edition Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee. 176pp.
1994 Williams, Kenneth L. Lampropeltis triangulum. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (594):1-10
2014 Ruane, Sara, Robert W. Bryson Jr., R. Alexander Pyron and Frank T. Burbrink. Coalescent species delimitation in Milksnakes (genus Lampropeltis) and impacts on phylogenetic comparative analyses. Systematic Biology 63(2):231-250
2015 Ruane, Sara, Omar Torres-Carvajal , and Frank T. Burbrink. Independent demographic responses to climate change among temperate and tropical Milksnakes (Colubridae: Genus Lampropeltis). PLOS One 10(6):1-17
2015 Ruane, Sara. Using geometric morphometrics for integrative taxonomy: An examination of head shapes of milksnakes (genus Lampropeltis). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 2015:1-20
2016 Burbrink, Frank T., Yvonne L. Chan, Edward A. Myers,Sara Ruane, Brian Tilston Smith, and Michael J. Hickerson. Asynchronous demographic responses to Pleistocene climate change in Eastern Nearctic vertebrates. Ecology Letter 2016:1-11
2020 Hillis, David M. The detection and naming of geographic variation within species. Herpetological Review 51(1):52-56
2020 Chambers, E. Anne and David M. Hillis. The multispecies coalescent over-splits species in the case of geographically widespread taxa. Systematic Biology 69(1):184–193
2021 Marshall, Thomas L., E. Anne Chambers, Mikhail V. Matz, and David M. Hillis. How mitonuclear discordance and geographic variation have confounded species boundaries in a widely studied snake. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (162):1-12
2021 Burbrink, Frank and Sara Ruane. Contemporary philosophy and methods for studying speciation and delimiting species. Ichthyology & Herpetology 109(3):874-894
2022 Burbrink, Frank T., Brian I. Crother, Christopher M. Murray, Brian Tilston Smith, Sara Ruane, Edward A. Myers, and Robert Alexander Pyron. Empirical and philosophical problems with the subspecies rank. Ecology and Evolution 12(7):1-17
2022 Burbrink, Frank T., Justin M. Bernstein, Arianna Kuhn, Marcelo Gehara, and Sara Ruane. Ecological divergence and the history of gene flow in the Nearctic milksnakes (Lampropeltis triangulum Complex) Systematic Biology 71(4):839–858
2023 Chambers, E. Anne, Thomas L. Marshall, and David M. Hillis. The importance of contact zones for distinguishing interspecific from intraspecific geographic variation. Systematic Biology 72(2):357–371
2024 Kornai, Daniel, Xiyun Jiao, Jiayi Ji, Tomáš Flouri, Ziheng Yang Hierarchical heuristic species delimitation under the multispecies coalescent model with migration. Systematic Biology 73(6):1015–1037

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Sunday 27 April 2025 12:05 CT