Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been looking for some natural history information about the Coastal Plain's Milk Snake, but have not had much luck. Recently someone posted some pictures of a snake that looks a lot like a Coastal they caught in Bedford Co. Virginia on the kingsnake forum page. But, I can't find any records of coastals in Bedford county, which is the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountians in South West VA.

Based on the information I have found, many people contest that the Coastal is an intergrade between an Eastern Milk and a Scarlet King but some people think it is a color variation of the Eastern Milk. Has any research been done to disprove one or both of these hypothesis? Has anyone ever bred the two (Eastern x Scarlet King) in captivity to see if the offspring look remotely like the Coastal Plain's Milksnake? I tried this question on the hybrid forum without any help...

Many Thanks,
Tom

In an older volume of Ecology (Vol. 38 No. 2) Philip Smith published the paper:
AN ANALYSIS OF POST WISCONSIN BIOGRAPHY OF THE PRAIRIE PENINSULA REGION BASED ON DISTRIBUTIONAL PHENOMINA AMONG TERRESTRIAL VERTEBRATE POPULATIONS
Basically what this paper leads one to suggest is that after the last glacial phase a warm and dry period arose that allowed grassland ecosystems to migrate eastward. Distribution maps show this "prairie peninsula" extending into New Jersey and southern Maryland, the very heart of temporalis's range. Along with this migration came milksnakes. Once cooler and more moist conditions returned the grasslands retreated some of the animals survived. In the case of coastal plains milk snakes they primarily survived in areas with poor well drained that maintained sparse vegetation and climatic conditions more similar to those or the original "prairie peninsula" than current and prevailing conditions. Genetic drift during the initial invasion of western milks differentiated them from more western populations and further isolation after the retreat of grasslands is likely the cause of "locality" based variation. That these invading milksnakes have integrated with easterns to the north of their range is pretty certain however it remains questionable as to whether there has been gene flow between them and the scarlet king snake. If one were to rely solely on the phenotype of animals from SE Virginia and NE North Carolina you would conclude that integration had occurred however other mechanisms are capable of producing similar results so this later questions awaits a definitive answer from the gene chasers.

In any case coastals are distinctive animals. In my humble opinion not only do they have a fascinating natural history but they are much over looked in the hobby. Their small size and calm (for a milk snake) nature make them excellent subjects for captive maintenance. There are currently at least two color morphs available and one pattern morph that I know of. There are also several regional types of interest to locality breeders though some of these lines are highly inbred at this time. The only drawback to coastals is their supposed difficulty in getting them started. Though they are not as easy as say corn snakes they are nowhere near as difficult to get started as many species I work with. Once started they can and do grow quickly and I've regularly gotten them reach sexual maturity, breed and lay eggs at 18 months of age!