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In all the photos I have seen of milk snakes they seem to have smaller heads in proportion to the girth of the snake, with pointier snouts, than do king snakes. It doesn't seem to matter what subspecies the kings or milks are, either.
( Sorry for such a silly question! LOL)

milksnakes ARE kingsnakes.
but yes there are slight meristic differances head shape being one, milks tend to have small almost shovel shaped heads very low profile where kings have fuller longer snouts and a more stout profile IMHO

now with all that being said here are some 50/50kingmilks
pueblanXblack king new pics soon these are douggies favorites

,,,,,,,thomas davis
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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

"these are douggies favorites"

Yes, those have ALWAYS been my favorites to feed my other kings!

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

As mentioned above milks and kings are closely related. Milksnakes tend to have less or almost no visual neck. They tend to burrow more and their necks are thicker then other colubrids, which might add to the appearance that their heads are smaller.

I don't keep many kings, but the ones I do also have small heads, pyros, thayeri, grey bands all have smallish heads.
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"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which ones pink?"

>>As mentioned above milks and kings are closely related. Milksnakes tend to have less or almost no visual neck. They tend to burrow more and their necks are thicker then other colubrids, which might add to the appearance that their heads are smaller.
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>>I don't keep many kings, but the ones I do also have small heads, pyros, thayeri, grey bands all have smallish heads.
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>>"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which ones pink?"

Yep....pyros, thayeri and alterna have smallish heads but they are distinct from their body with a neckline undetectable in milksnakes.......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

>>In all the photos I have seen of milk snakes they seem to have smaller heads in proportion to the girth of the snake, with pointier snouts, than do king snakes. It doesn't seem to matter what subspecies the kings or milks are, either.
>>( Sorry for such a silly question! LOL)

King snakes have a more distinct neck than milksnakes.......A milksnake head blends into their neck and body.....
A kingsnake head is more angular and has a more distinct neckline......

Many have misrepresented Mexican Kingsnakes for Milksnakes over the years....

One main misrepresentation was the Jalpan Ruthveni.....it was marketed as a Mex Mex and a Smithi at one time........
Another that comes to mind is the true Arcifera (Jalisco Milk snake)....Many thought it was a ruthveni at one time........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I believe I was the first to breed Ruthveni, but, I really was not. I believe in the mid seventies, Dallas zoo was breeding Arcifera and their animals were indeed milksnakes. L.A.Zoo(Harvey Fisher) was also breeding Arcifera but they actually had Ruthveni. So they were the first to produce those fine animals. Unfortunately, they went on the market as Arcifera.

I imagine that the evolution of the mexicana type kings was from a burrowing fossorial milk snake to a saxicolis type kingsnake. Which means the evolved into species that used habitats in and above ground level. Like rock outcrops, hollow trees, underbark, etc. For this, a wider flatter head was an advantage.

Then comes along Zonata, where some locals have milksnake heads, and others mexicana type heads.

to confuse the issue even more, I was on a field project that discussed the wide flat heads of many blairi(alterna) vs. the narrow pointed heads of individuals in the same populations(both expressed phenotypes)

We found both narrow headed individuals and wide headed individuals in all the mexicana populations that we investigated.

Bill Garska was the author, I was only a mere field guy and did not believe any of the conclusions made in the paper. hahahahahaahhahahahahahaha Simply put, there is some evolutionary confused in kings.

This is also true for cal kings as well, some populations do have wide distint heads, others more narrow and blunt. Anyway, just saying. Cheers

Thanks for some very interesting history and information.

I confess to having a bias towards a well defined head and neck. If I ever get a milk snake I know what to name him! LOL!

That was a question?
hehe
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

I know this seemed a silly question, but I only have lampropeltis pyromelena, mexicana and getula and no Lampropeltis triangulum of any sort, nor have I actually looked at at milk snakes except for photos.

Thanks everyone for answering my question!

I know what you were saying, believe me. It was my lame attempt at humor on the absence of a question in your post...
Likely milks evolved that way since they are generally more fossorial.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Oh, that's okay. I didn't mean to sound so defensive