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What is L.g. Splendida commonly known as? From what I've seen on the internet it can definitely be called a desert kingsnake, but I've also seen pictures that look just like Splendida being refered to as Sonoran or just Common.

Welcome to the wonderful world of "common" names, which is why so many of us try to stick as much as possible to latin. All of those names (and I will bet a few more) are locally correct. If you really want to get confused here are some of the names for Lampropeltis getula getula;

Common Kingsnake
Chain King
Eastern King
Eastern Chain King
Thunder snake
Thunder and lightening snake
Swamp wamper (my favorite!)

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

L.g. splendida used to be known as the Sonoran Kingsnake. However, the name Desert Kingsnake is now favored as it is not strictly a snake of the Sonoran Desert (more of its range is in the Chihuahuan desert, in fact) and much of its range is outside of the state of Sonora.

The name common kingsnake is often applied to all subspecies of L. getula. Therefore Eastern, Florida, Speckled, Black, Desert, Mexican Black, and Cal Kings can all be referred to as "Common Kingsnakes". Only when you are differentiating the subspecies do you use the other names.
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Chris Harrison

Thanks for asking...and thanks for the informative replies. I love learning something new!

Judy
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1.0 red cape gopher (Caesar)