Alternate name: Harlequin Coral Snake

Family: Elapidae, Coral Snakes view all from this family

Description 22-47 1/2" (55.9-120.7 cm). Body encircled by wide red and black rings separated by narrow yellow rings. Head uniformly black from tip of blunt snout to just behind eyes. Red rings usually spotted with black; black dotting fuses into pair of spots on back into a single spot on belly. Scales smooth and shiny, in 15 rows. Anal plate divided.

Warning Coral snakes belong to the same family as the highly venomous cobras, kraits, mambas, and sea snakes. Unlike vipers and pit vipers, coral snakes have fangs that are fixed in position on the front part of the upper jaw and cannot be folded back. Coral snake venom is strongly neurotoxic, affecting the victim’s nervous and respiratory systems, and bites can be fatal. Do not handle these snakes!

Several harmless snakes have color patterns resembling that of the coral snakes. Coral snakes always have a blunt black snout and red, yellow, and black rings that completely encircle the body. There is a yellow ring on both sides of every red ring. Remember: "Red touch yellow, kill a fellow." The harmless Scarlet Kingsnake (a race of Milk Snake) looks like a coral snake but has a red snout, and the red and yellow rings are separated by black rings: "Red touch black, friend of Jack." In the nonvenomous Scarlet Snake, the rings don't completely circle the body as they do in coral snakes, the belly is white, the snout is red and pointed, and the red areas are ringed in black. How to avoid and treat snakebites

Breeding Reportedly lays 3-12 eggs in June; young hatch in September, at 7-9" (18-23 cm).

Habitat Moist, densely vegetated hammocks near ponds or streams in hardwood forests; pine flatwoods; rocky hillsides and canyons.

Range Se. North Carolina to s. Florida and Key Largo, west to Mississippi River.

Discussion Usually seen under rotting logs or leaves or moving on surface in early morning or late afternoon. Feeds on small snakes or lizards.