Pantherophis emoryi ssp.
Great Plains / Slowinski’s Ratsnake complex

Grayish-brown with large, alternating, dark brown blotches. Blotches often bordered with black. Spearhead-shaped mark on head. Belly with irregular checkerboard of black and white, similar to maize. Juveniles like adults with black bar through eye extending past jawline onto neck. Species account on iNaturalist

Subspecies: P. e. emoryi (Great Plains Ratsnake) and P. e. slowinskii (Slowinski’s Ratsnake)

Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019

This species is represented by 128 records from 23 sources: 78 museum (), 0 literature (), 0 research (), and 43 observation (), with 7 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (). It has been museum vouchered for 28 of 75 counties (), with 5 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1898 to present.

This uncommon species complex has widely scattered records throughout the Interior Highlands. A small number of additional records, mostly historical, come from northeast Arkansas along Crowley’s Ridge. The historical records of P. slowinskii () from the vicinity of Monticello, Drew County (FMNH 37786 from 1941, FMNH 40754 from 1942, and UAMN 114 from 1967), were previously considered as suspect juvenile P. obsoletus, however, a 2017 anecdotal photographic report of an adult road-killed specimen in Monticello, Drew County, suggests this species may still be present in the area (K. J. Irwin, pers. comm.). Just prior to public release of this document, an additional adult road-killed specimen of this complex was collected in Nevada County (C. Vick, unpublished data; not shown).