Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, I am new to kings. I have 1 snow corn. But I recently purchased a "speckled" king from a local herper and was wondering... is there a difference between speckled and brooks? I live in southwest missouri and he says that she decended from a pair of wild caught kings....(if that helps)

Welcome to the very fun world of kings! I cxan tell you that you should enjoy your new snake.

Speckled kings are found in the western SE states such as AL, MS, LA, TX, and up the Mississippi River floodplain. They are Lampropeltis getula "holbrooki". The brooksi king is only found in FL and usually gets slightly longer and larger in build. It is Lampropeltis getula floridana "brooksi". Not sure how the current taxonomy holds, but different people use different terms. Some would like to see them split from FL kings while others want to lump them all together. Quite frankly it doesn't matter to me. Enjoy your snake! And post pics!

Glad to see your interest in the kings. I love them! Check out the photo gallery for all the different kinds of Brooksi pics. There are absolutly fabulous pics in there. Enjoy!!!

So what kind is she?

Looks like a Speckled Kingsnake to me.....(Lampropeltis getula holbrooki).
Nice one too. It should lose some of its crossbars across the back as it ages. The nicests ones in my opinion have an evenly speckled pattern with a yellow spot on each black scale.
Then there are some great ones from the Houston, TX area that have awesome yellow/orange coloration and don't forget about all the morphs. There are lavender albinos, amelanistics albinos, checkerboard patterned and even whitesided holbrooki....
Great looking snake and welcome to the kingsnake world...You will find they are great snakes to keep and breed, if you decide to breed later on.
Here is the closest thing I have to Holbrooki. She is a wild collected Aransas, Co. Desert king / Speckled king intergrade.
And she is getting ready to lay eggs soon. She is gravid in the picture.
John Lassiter

These are Lavender Speckleds, their pattern is similar to yours.