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Squamata · ColubridaeEntry 10,754 of 21,572
Mexican Kingsnake, Lampropeltis leonis

Reptilia · Squamata

Lampropeltis leonisGünther, 1893

Mexican Kingsnake

Photograph by Melvin TOULLEC, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A meat-eating snake from the Neotropic region, reaching 122 cm nose to tail.

ReptiliaSquamataColubridaeLampropeltis

We do not have enough on this species yet

Catalogue of Life records this animal’s name, its family and where it sits in the tree of life. Beyond that, only 16 facts are on record — no diet, no lifespan, nothing we would be willing to publish as an entry.

So this page waits here rather than pretending to be one. It is not listed and not submitted to search engines. If you know this animal and can point us at a published source, we would rather have it right than have it soon.

Grows to
1219mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Weighs up to
190.2g
greatest
Body length across Colubridae

Longer than 81% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.

81% of 2,008 species are smaller19% larger
98 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest3,800 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

16 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant

The animal itself

Limbs
None

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
1219mm4 ft

snakes only in this source

Body mass · greatestcomputed
190.2g6.7 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Dietcomputed
Carnivorous

no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes

Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Range size
24,345km²

Naming and history

Suborder
Serpentes
Infraorder
Alethinophidia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Günther
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1893
Type locality
Mexico

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
  • Length snout to vent · adult female mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Active
  • Where it lives
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Venomous
  • Fangs
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • Highest it lives · above sea level

Others in Colubridae

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  3. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.