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Arizona Mountain Kingsnake

Lampropeltis pyromelana (Cope, 1866)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Arizona Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini , Family: Colubridae, Location: Germany, Augsburg, Zoo

Arizona Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini , Family: Colubridae, Location: Germany, Augsburg, Zoo

Holger Krisp · CC BY 3.0 · Image source

Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

Lampropeltis pyromelana, the Sonoran mountain kingsnake or Arizona mountain kingsnake, is a species of snake native to the southwestern United States. It can grow up to 36 inches (910 mm) in length.

Wikipedia contributors, Lampropeltis pyromelana; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:34:21.708930+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Lampropeltis pyromelana (Cope, 1866)
Name authority
(Cope, 1866)
Common name
Arizona Mountain Kingsnake
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Reptilia
Order
Squamata
Family
Colubridae
Genus
Lampropeltis
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
  9. orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
  10. suborderSerpentes Linnaeus, 1758
  11. infraorderAlethinophidia Nopcsa, 1923
  12. familyColubridae
  13. subfamilyColubrinae
  14. genusLampropeltis
  15. speciesLampropeltis pyromelana (Cope, 1866)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Lampropeltis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Honduran milk snakeLampropeltis abnorma (Bocourt, 1886)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Grey-banded KingsnakeLampropeltis alterna (Brown, 1901)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Black Desert Kingsnake [nigrita]Lampropeltis californiae (Blainville, 1835)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Prairie KingsnakeLampropeltis calligaster (Harlan, 1827)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Short-tailed SnakeLampropeltis extenuata (Brown, 1890)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Common KingsnakeLampropeltis getula (Linnaeus, 1766)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Black KingsnakeLampropeltis nigra (Yarrow, 1882)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Atlantic Central American MilksnakeLampropeltis polyzona Cope, 1860ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Desert KingsnakeLampropeltis splendida (Baird & Girard, 1853)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Eastern MilksnakeLampropeltis triangulum (Lacépède, 1789)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Mexican MilksnakeLampropeltis annulata Kennicott, 1860ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Mexican KingsnakeLampropeltis leonis (Günther, 1893)ColubridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 1,632 records assigned to Colubridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Ophibolus pyromelanus Cope, 1866 Cope, 1866synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

USA (Nevada, Utah, Arizona, SW New Mexico)

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Lampropeltis&species=pyromelana Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3S4W7. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.