Lampropeltis taxonomy

[pdomensis]

Just an academic question out of curiousity. Can anyone tell me why milksnakes get separated out into their own group even though they belong to the same genus as kings? If milksnakes make a monophyletic group, do the remainder of kings represent one or multiple clades?

[brianm616]

Milksnakes are king snakes. It really is that simple.

There's folklore about farmers finding snakes attached to the underside of their cows. Believing the serpents were trying to steal the cows milk they gave them the colloquial nomenclature of 'milksnakes' - additionally, i believe since common kings and milks have an overlapping eastern/southern range the name just kind of stuck.