Scarlet kingsnakes have a tricolored pattern of black, red, white, and various shades of yellow bands that appear to
mimic the
venomous
coral snake in a form of
Batesian mimicry. This method relies on generalization by predators that do not recognize that the mimicry of a Coral snake that the Scarlet King Snake's pattern displays is imperfect. A method to help us differentiate between venomous and non-venomous tricolor snakes in
North America is found in an enormous variety of popular phrases, which are usually some variation of "Red touches black, friend of jack, red touches yellow, kill a fellow", "red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack", or "if red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow; if red touches black, you're all right, Jack". For tri-colored snakes found east of the Mississippi River, all of these phrases can be replaced with the simple phrase, "Red face, I'm safe", in reference to the red snout of scarlet kingsnakes as opposed to the prominent black snout of the eastern coral snake (
Micrurus fulvius). Scarlet kingsnakes are born with white, black, and red banding. As they mature, they develop varying shades of yellow within geographic areas where this is expressed. In addition, the yellowing is not uniform, but rather this pigmentation proceeds from lighter to darker from the lowermost scales upward to the dorsum, or "back", presenting a multiple yellowish band. Early expression of yellowing appears as early as 3 months and continues through the first 3 years. As adults age, a gradual darkening of the yellowish banding occurs. The yellow pigmentation varies from lemon, to school-bus yellow, to tangerine, to apricot. Scarlet kingsnakes are secretive,
nocturnal,
fossorial snakes, so are infrequently seen by people. They are excellent climbers. They can be found underneath the loose bark on rotting pines (which is a favorite place for them to hide during spring or during heavy rains), under the bark on dying or decaying pines and their stumps, and decaying wood, where they hunt for their favorite prey, small
snakes and
lizards, especially
skinks. Hatchling scarlet kingsnakes show a strong predisposition for
ground skinks (
Scincella lateralis), often to the exclusion of other prey items. One study showed that elongate squamates made up about 97% of these snakes diets, potentially due to their small mouths. Out of those elongate squamates, the aforementioned skinks made up 74%, while colubroid snakes made up only 15%. All prey items ingested in this study were consumed headfirst, and on average prey was 19% of predator mass. It has also been noted that the diet of
Lampropeltis elapsoides is unusually narrow compared to adults of most other species. ==Reproduction==