THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-snakes)    Elapidae  

Sonoran Coralsnake
Micruroides euryxanthus (Kennicott, 1860)
MY-kroo-ROY-deez — yoo-ree-ZAN-thus

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.09.21.53.10)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.26 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona New Mexico

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its similarity to Micrurus and its broad yellow bands.
Micruroides — From Micrurus + Greek -oides (οειδής), meaning “resembling,” indicating it is morphologically similar to Micrurus but genetically distinct.
euryxanthus — From Greek eurys (εὐρύς), meaning “broad,” and xanthos (ξανθός), meaning “yellow,” referring to its wide yellow rings.

First instance(s) of published English names:
King Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: Coues, Elliott. 1875. Synopsis of the reptiles and batrachians of Arizona with critical and field notes, and an extensive synonymy. Report upon Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian. Volume 5. ():585-633); Harlequin Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: Coues, Elliott. 1875. Synopsis of the reptiles and batrachians of Arizona with critical and field notes, and an extensive synonymy. Report upon Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian. Volume 5. ():585-633); Ring Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: Coues, Elliott. 1875. Synopsis of the reptiles and batrachians of Arizona with critical and field notes, and an extensive synonymy. Report upon Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian. Volume 5. ():585-633); Sonora Harlequin Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: 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); Sonoran Coral Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Sonoran Coral Snake (Elaps euryxanthus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Sonoran Coral Snake (Micrurus euryxanthus: Denburgh, Van, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Arizona Coral Snake (Micruroides euryxanthus: 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.);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
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 of Philadelphia 12:328-338
1974 Roze, Janis A. Micruroides, M. euryxanthus.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (163):1-4
1995 Slowinski, Joseph Bruno. A phylogenetic analysis of the New World coral snakes (Elapidae: Leptomicrurus, Micruroides, and Micrurus) based on allozymic and morphological characters. Journal of Herpetology 29(3):325-338
2016 Rabosky, Davis, Alison R., Christian L. Cox, Daniel L. Rabosky, Pascal O. Title, Iris A. Holmes, Anat Feldman, and Jimmy A. McGuire. Coral snakes predict the evolution of mimicry across New World snakes. Nature Communications 7(11484):1-9
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico. Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 28 April 2026 11:37 CT