Alternate name: Sonoran Coral Snake
Family: Elapidae, Coral Snakes view all from this family
Description 13-21" (33-53.3 cm). Blunt-snouted and glossy, with alternating wide red, wide black, and narrow yellow or white rings encircling the body. Head uniformly black to angle of jaw. Scales smooth, 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
Subspecies Three; 1 in our range, M. e. euryxanthus.
Breeding Habits poorly known; presumably lays clutch of 2 or 3 eggs in late summer.
Habitat Rocky areas, plains to lower mountain slopes; rocky upland desert especially in arroyos and river bottoms; sea level to 5,900' (1,800 m).
Range C. Arizona to sw. New Mexico south to Sinaloa, Mexico.
Discussion Do not handle! Venom is highly dangerous. This snake emerges from a subterranean retreat at night, usually during or following a warm shower. When disturbed by a predator, it buries its head in its coils, raises and exposes the underside of its tail, and may evert its cloacal lining with a popping sound. Eats blind snakes, other small snakes.
