EASIN - European Alien Species Information Network

Eugenio GERVASINI
2/13/2023 - 11:17 AM

Thread Opening Text:
The list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern contains the species Lampropeltis
getula (Linnaeus, 1766). For the preparation of the European Baseline on the 22 species added to the list by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1203, Spain communicated us the distribution of the species "Lampropeltis californiae (= L. getula californiae), which is present in the Canary Islands". According to ITIS and California herps https://californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/l.californiae.html#taxonomy L. getula (Linnaeus, 1766), Common King Snake  and L. californiae  (Blainville, 1835), California King Snake, are two different species. Could you please clarify this issue also in relation to a species we have included in the Catalogue as "Lampropeltis getula subsp. californiae"?

Riccardo SCALERA
4/13/2023 - 8:00 AM

As clarified also by the Commission in relation to the evident challenge of the taxonomic situation of Lampropeltis, taxa that are covered by the listing under Regulation 1143/2014 are based on the risk assessment. The public link (which can be freely shared) is the following:
https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/98665af0-7dfa-448c-8bf4-e1e086b50d2c/library/c63fde04-98e8-4018-8959-97afdbd618cd?p=1&n=10&sort=modified_DESC
As reported in paragraph A.1 which goes into the taxonomic discussions, at the moment of drafting the risk assessment ITIS listed 8 subspecies:
L. getula californiae (Blainville, 1835) – California Kingsnake L. getula floridana Blanchard, 1919– Florida Kingsnake L. getula getula (Linnaeus, 1766) – Eastern Kingsnake L. getula holbrooki Stejneger, 1902– Speckled Kingsnake L. getula nigra (Yarrow, 1882) – Black Kingsnake L. getula nigrita Zweifel and Norris, 1955 – Black Desert Kingsnake L. getula splendida (Baird and Girard, 1853) – Desert Kingsnake L. getula sticticeps Barbour and Engels, 1942 – Outer Banks Kingsnake. So all these are covered.

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