Micrurus fulvius
species of reptile
Micrurus fulvius, commonly known as the eastern coral snake, common coral snake, American cobra, and more, is a species of highly venomous coral snake in the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to the southeastern United States. The family also contains the cobras and sea snakes.
Its appearance is sometimes confused with that of the scarlet snake (Cemophora coccinea) or scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis elapsoides), which are nonvenomous mimics. No subspecies are recognized as being valid. Although the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed M. fulvius as "Least Concern" in 2007 based on its total global population size (Hammerson, 2007), it is of significant conservation concern at the local level throughout most of its range; it is listed as Endangered in North Carolina (North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, 2014), Imperiled in South Carolina (South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 2014), and of Highest Conservation Concern in Alabama (Outdoor Alabama, 2017).
Taxonomy
Micrurus tener used to be considered a subspecies of Micrurus fulvius. However, DNA analysis suggests that it may be its own species as the analysis of microsatellites loci seems to place M. tener as a distinct species from M. fulvius.
Common names
Among the many common names for Micrurus fulvius are eastern coral snake, American cobra, candy-stick snake, common coral snake, coral adder, Elaps harlequin snake, Florida coral snake, harlequin coral snake, North American coral snake, red bead snake, thunder-and-lightning snake, and, in Spanish, serpiente-coralillo arlequín (literally "harlequin coral snake").
Description
Micrurus fulvius is usually less than 80 cm (31 in) in total length (tail included).
“Micrurus fulvius” enters the record as species of reptile. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Micrurus, fulvius and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Micrurus fulvius” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Micrurus, fulvius and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1513945. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2014 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Micrurus fulvius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.