http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-bytes/animalia/eumetazoa/coelomates/deuterostomes/chordata/craniata/reptilia/squamata/scarlet-king-snake.htm#sc the scarlet snake- COMMON NAME: scarlet king snake, scarlet milk snake, scarlet snake KINGDOM: Animalia PHYLUM: Chordata CLASS: Reptilia ORDER: Squamata FAMILY: Colubridae GENUS SPECIES:Lampropeltis (shining, beautiful scales) triangulumelapsoides The English word snake comes from Old Englishsnaca, itself from Proto-Germanic*snak-an- (cf. GermanicSchnake "ring snake", Swedishsnok "grass snake"), from Proto-Indo-European root *(s)nēg-o- "to crawl", "to creep", which also gave sneak as well as Sanskritnāgá "snake". The word ousted adder, as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre was the general word for snake. The other term, serpent, is from French, ultimately from Indo-European *serp- (to creep),[8] which also gave Greekérpo (ερπω) "I crawl".