Description: Gray or tan marked with a light Y-shpaed or V-shaped patch on the neck and chocolate brown to reddish brown, black bordered blotches down the back and sides. Or colorfully ringed and blotched with red (or orange), black, and yellow (or white). A light neck collar followed by black bordered red bands separated by light rings. Light rings widen near the belly. The scales are smooth in 19 to 23 rows and the anal plate is single.
Habitat: Diverse situations: semiarid to damp coastal bottomland to Rocky Mountains and tropical hardwood forests; pine forests, open deciduous woodland, meadows, rocky hillsides, prairies, high plains, sand dunes, farmland, and suburban areas. Found from sea level to 8,000 feet.
Breeding: Mates in spring;depostis clutch of 2 to 17 elliptical eggs often in rotting logs in June to July. Eggs hatch in August to September. Incubation period is 6 to 9 week and the young are 5½" to 11" long.
Range: Southeastern Maine, southwestern Quebec, southeastern and southcentral Ontario, southern Wisconsin, and central and southeastern Minnesoata south through most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; Mexico south to Columbia and Venezuela.
Diet: Young milksnakes typically eat slugs, insects, and earthworms. Adult diet frequently includes lizards (especially skinks), and small mammals. They are also known to eat birds and their eggs, frogs, fish, and other snakes
Behavior: Secretive and usually not seen in the open except at night.
Conservation Status: The milksnake is not listed by the IUCN, but in some areas, there may face significant pressure due to pet trade collection. Because this species' high value in the pet trade, many subspecies are now being bred in captivity for sale.
Additonal Notes: In the north it is often mistaken for the Copperhead, in the south for the Eastern Coral Snake. Its common name is based on the absurd belief that it milks cows, taking prodigious amounts in the process. The adult size of teh Milk Snake varies geographicially. North American subspecies do not attain the great lengths of the neotropical populations. In our range the species reaches its greattest length in the northeastern states and adjacent Canada. Adults in the southeast are the smallest. Record longevity in captivity exceeds 21 years.
Subspecies:
Eastern Milksnake (L.t. triangulum) - 26" - 52", Y or V shaped patch on nape of the neck. Found in southern Maine south to northern New Jersey and in the Appalachian Mountains through North Carolina, Tennessee to northern Georgia and Alabama, and westward to western kentucky, southwestern Indiana, north half of Illinois, northeastern Iowa and southcentral Minnesota. Photo...
Louisiana Milksnake (L.t. amarura) - 16" to 31"; snout mottled black and white, black border of broad red bands extends onto the belly scales. Found in Louisiana west of the Mississippi River and eastern Texas north into extreme southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas. Photo...
Mexican Milksnake (L.t. annulata) - 25" tp 39"; snout is black; edges of the broad red blotches extends to the belly scales, the underside is black. Found in southern Texas into Mexico. Photo...
New Mexico Milksnake (L.t. celaenops) - 14" to 24¾", the snout is mottled black and white; black and light bands expanded on the center line of the back and rear belly, the red extends to the edge of the underside scales. Found in northern and eastern New Mexico and adjacent western Texas with scattered populations in southcentral New Mexico to the Big Bend area, Texas. Photo...
Scarlet Milksnake (L.t. elapsoides) - 14" tp 27"; the snout is red and the bands usually continue across the underside. Found in North Carolina south through the Florida Keys, west to the Appalachians and the Mississippi River in southern Mississippi and adjacent Louisiana, north through northeastern Mississippi, central Tennessee, and southcentral and eastern Kentucky. Photo...
Pale Milksnake (L.t. multistrata) - 18" to 33½"; the snout is light orange with black flackes, the orange often replaces red, the midline area of the belly is white with a few scattered black marks. Found in western Nebraska, western South Dakota, southeastern and northcentral Wyoming and southeastern and central Montana.Photo...
Red Milksnake (L.t. syspila) - 21" to 42"; the black border of the red bands extends to the first scale rows, several side blotches may be present. Found in northwestern Mississippi west to northeastern Oklahoma, north to southwestern Indiana, central Illinois, northeastern Iowa, and extreme southeastern South Dakota. Photo...
Utah Milksnake (L.t. taylori) - 16" to 28¼"; The snout if black or light with a black blotch oin the top and tip, the black bands expanded dorsally, often fusing and interrupting the red rings, the black margined red bands extend to the first scale row or the edge of the underside scales. Found in westcentral Colorado, northeastern , central, and southwestern Utah, and northcentral Arizona. Photo...
Central Plains Milksnake (L.t. gentilis) - 18" to 36"; the snout is mottled black and white, the black bands encroach on the red bands dorsally, the red bands extends into the underside and may cross it or be separated by a black bar. Found in the northern Texas panhandle, western Oklahoma, eastern and western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and southcentral and southwestern Nebraska. Photo...
**NOTE - Coast Plains Milk Snake (an intergrade Scarlet Kingsnake) and the Eastern Milk Snake, with light collar and reddish dorsal blotches reaching the belly scales occur from southern New Jersey to northeastern North Carolina.
