THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Elapidae  

Texas Coralsnake
Micrurus tener (Baird and Girard, 1853)

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Streicher et al. (2016, Evolution 70: 1435–1449, recognized no subspecies within M. tener

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.09.21.53.09)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.64 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arkansas Louisiana Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Bead Snake (Elaps fulvius: Jordan, David S. 1878. Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States: Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised, and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg & Company, Chicago. pp.); Texas Harlequin Snake (Elaps fulvius tener: 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); Harlequin Snake (Elaps fulvius: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Harlequin Snake (Elaps fulvius: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Bead Snake (Elaps fulvius: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Coral Snake (Elaps fulvius: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Harlequin Snake (Elaps fulvius: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Harlequin Snake (Micrurus fulvius: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Texas Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: 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.); Barber Pole Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); King Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Bead Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Texas Harlequin Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Texas Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Candy Stick (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Tawny Harlequin Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Coral Adder (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Thunder and Lightning Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Harlequin (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Thunder Snake (Micrurus fulvius tenere: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part 1. Serpents. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 2(5):xvi + 172
1983 Roze, Janis A. and Grace M. Tilger. Micrurus fulvius. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (316):1-4
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
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
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2016 Davis Rabosky, 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
2016 Streicher, Jeffrey W., Jay P. McEntee, Laura C. Drzich, Daren C. Card, Drew R. Schield, Utpal Smart, Christopher L. Parkinson, Tereza Jezkova, Eric N. Smith, and Todd A. Castoe. Genetic surfing, not allopatric divergence, explains spatial sorting of mitochondrial haplotypes in venomous coralsnakes. Evolution 70(7):1435–1449

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 22:35 CT