quality:corruption, structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:style_transfer
Subspecies

This species was long considered to contain five subspecies listed below, but gene analysis suggests that A. c. laticinctus represents its own distinct species, while A. c. mokasen and A. c. phaeogaster are regional variants of A. c. contortrix, and A. c. pictigaster is a regional variant of A. c. laticinctus.

Five subspecies have been recognized in the past, but recent genetic analysis shows that A c. contorix and two of the subspecies are monotypic, while Agkistrodon laticinctus (formerly Agkistrodon contortrix laticinctus) and the fifth subspecies are a single distinct species.