Large. Mostly black, often with specks of cream or pink between scales. Labial scales, chin, and neck cream. Belly with irregular checkerboard of black and white. Juveniles gray with dark blotches and a black bar that runs through eye to jawline. 
Species: P. obsoletus (Western Ratsnake) and P. oboletus-spiloides (Western / Gray Ratsnake hybrids)
Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019
This species is represented by 886 records from 33 sources: 656 museum (
), 0 literature (
), 0 research (
), and 189 observation (
), with 41 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (
). It has been museum vouchered for 73 of 75 counties (), with 2 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1892 to present.
This species is common statewide. Hybridization with P. spiloides (■) may occur east of Crowley’s Ridge (Powell et al., 2016), but the extent of this influence, if present, is unknown.
