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Scarlet kingsnake

Lampropeltis elapsoides · Snakes · Reptiles

Scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis elapsoides): Bright red, black and yellow bands that extend across the belly. Snout nearly always red; red and black bands touch, red and yellow bands do not. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scarlet kingsnake on a white background
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Scientific name
Lampropeltis elapsoides
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Southeastern Virginia and the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas south through Georgia to southern Florida and west to eastern Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Biology

How to identify it

Bright red, black and yellow bands that extend across the belly. [1][2][3]

Snout nearly always red; red and black bands touch, red and yellow bands do not. [1][2][3]

A coral snake has a black snout and red bands touching yellow. [1][2][3]

Compared with the eastern coral snake: Venomous coral snake has a black snout and red bands touching yellow; scarlet kingsnake has a red snout and red touching black. [1][2][3]

Compared with the northern scarlet snake: Scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea) has a plain white belly; scarlet kingsnake bands cross the belly. [1][2][3]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a scarlet kingsnake before you act. Compared with the eastern coral snake: Venomous coral snake has a black snout and red bands touching yellow; scarlet kingsnake has a red snout and red touching black.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Pine flatwoods and wet prairie hammocks; less often bottomland, mixed hardwood, upland pine, sandhills and maritime hammock. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Found in rotting logs and under bark in Coastal Plain pine forests; stumps and logs are common cover. [1][2][3]

Constrictor that eats small snakes, lizards and mice. [1][2][3]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southeastern Virginia and the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas south through Georgia to southern Florida and west to eastern Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission · reviewed 2026-09-30

    North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

  3. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission · reviewed 2026-09-30

    North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission