Is there a black king snake that is not a Mexican king?

OK folks here’s the deal:
My very first snake that I acquired was in 1998 (yes I’m old) and was a kingsnake. He was mostly solid black with a white/creamy belly and some light speckling on his sides (if I remember correctly it’s been a long time and I’d need to dig up some photos of him). At that time in my herp life I had never heard of a Mexican king snake.
Now I see them everywhere and they’re beautiful but I don’t think they necessarily look like my guy.

So my question is this: is there a king snake that looks similar to a Mexican black king but is not a Mexican black king?

I thought I had uncovered one a while back doing a Google search but can’t find it now.

I’ll try to dig up some photos of my guy but they’re pretty buried. I appreciate any and all responses.

Thank you for your time.

Mexican kings and black kings that are found in the United States are the same species, Lampropeltis nigra. They used to be L. getula nigra until the taxonomy fully split them from L. getula. The black kingsnake actually has a decently large range in North America, and they can be quite variable in pattern. This is why common names suck, haha. I bet you had a black king.

I was beginning to suspect as much but back in my day you know ole 1998 I never heard of a Mexican King (until recently) so hence my confusion thank you for clearing it up.

Vaseel was great I really miss him. My first snake was a great experience and probably instilled for me my love of colubrids- though these days I’m more into ratsnake than kings. But they will always remain my first love.

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by snowgyre

Mexican kings and black kings that are found in the United States are the same species, Lampropeltis nigra. They used to be L. getula nigra until the taxonomy fully split them from L. getula. The black kingsnake actually has a decently large range in North America, and they can be quite variable in pattern. This is why common names suck, haha. I bet you had a black king.

This is not accurate. Mexican black kings are nigrita and the black kings are nigra. Their ranges do not touch and they do not have a large range compared to their congeners. The OP sounds like they are describing nigra. Captively produced MBK typically are a solid dark brown/black including their ventrals.

It sounds to me like you had a melanistic speckled kingsnake.

Originally Posted by netviper

This is not accurate. Mexican black kings are nigrita and the black kings are nigra. Their ranges do not touch and they do not have a large range compared to their congeners. The OP sounds like they are describing nigra. Captively produced MBK typically are a solid dark brown/black including their ventrals.

Nope, @Snowgyre's comments are correct. There are no longer subspecies in the getula complex. The paper that restores the species is here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ge_In_Taxonomy

This sort of taxonomic reorganization is very common lately as molecular phylogenetics enables the cleaning up of past shortcomings in evaluating evolutionary relationships.

Great resource for taxonomy information is here:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.c...species=getula

https://reptile-database.reptarium.c...&species=nigra

There is also a melanistic [i]Lampropeltis leonis[\i]

Originally Posted by jlassiter

There is also a melanistic [i]Lampropeltis leonis[\i]

Is that a relative of Black Milk snake
Lampropeltis triangulum gaigeae ?


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All kings and milks are in the same genus, and therefor closely related. Leonis, known as the Thayer's, Variable or Nuevo Leone Kingsnake, is a distinct species from milksnakes, including the Black Milksnake. In addition, all Black Milksnakes eventually become black, but are not born that way. Melanistic leonis are born black, but it is not the normal appearance of species, but rather a recessive trait (morph).