Milk Snake

Lampropeltis triangulum

Milk Snake

MISN

Status

The subspecies Lampropeltis t. triangulum is state listed in South Carolina as a species of undetermined status.

Reasons for Current Status

A few records exist for Lampropeltis t. triangulum in Oconee, Pickens, and Greenville counties, South Carolina, but the status of this snake still remains undetermined. Further studies are needed to establish whether the few available records reflect population decline or lack of suitable habitat.

Description

This is a medium-sized (61–132 cm) snake with gray ground color and brown or reddish-brown blotches. The belly has a black and white checkerboard pattern. Twenty-three subspecies are described for this species (Williams, 1978). Three of these occur in the southeast: triangulum, syspila, and amaura (See Remarks).

Distribution

The Milk Snake is found from Maine to southeastern Minnesota, and southward to northern and western North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina, northern Georgia and Alabama. The range continues west through the Great Plains to eastern and southern Texas and continuing south to South America. It is apparently absent from most of Mississippi (except extreme western), and southern Louisiana.

Habitat

Many habitats are utilized by this species, including rocky hillsides, meadows, hardwoods, river valleys, pine ridges, and bog forests (Williams, 1978). Milk Snakes, which are secretive, are usually found hiding under decaying logs, stumps, rock piles, boards, bark, rubbish, and in and around old structures (Wright and Wright, 1957).

Special Requirements

The Milk Snake is very adaptable, requiring only an available food source and appropriate ground cover.

Breeding Habits

The Milk Snake, Lampropeltis t. triangulum has been reported to mate in early summer (Wright and Wright, 1957; McCauley, 1945). Females lay 7–20 eggs (Surface, 1906), which hatch in late August to early October (Noble, 1920).

Food Habits

The major foods of Lampropeltis triangulum are small rodents, other small mammals, birds, snakes, snake eggs, lizards, and even some insects (Barbour, 1950; Blanchard, 1921; Wright and Wright, 1957).

Management Suggestions

The Milk Snake appears to favor open, rocky, pasture land or meadows. Providing adequate shelter in the form of fallen logs, rocks, and old structures is probably the only management procedure necessary for this species.

Remarks

Because of the differences in basic ecology of the Scarlet Kingsnake found in the Southeast, a separate account is given for Lampropeltis elapsoides.

Additional References

Conant and Collins 1991; Gibbons and others 1979; Williams 1944.