It is a relatively medium-sized snake that occupies a variety of habitats from Baltimore, Maryland, south through the Florida Panhandle and west into Mississippi and Tennessee.

The specific name, rhomomaculata, is a combination of the Greek word rhombos and Latin maculata to form "rhombus spotted", referring to the 52 rhomboidical dorsal blotches described in the species.

It is easily mistaken for the milk snake and the venomous copperhead, which both share the same type of habitat, and can have similar markings.

[6] The preferred habitat of the mole kingsnake is open fields with loose, dry soil, typically on the edge of a forested region.

[7] Male and female mole kingsnakes mate around May–June during late spring to early summer.

[10] After mating, females choose their nesting sites underground or in rotting logs and leave their 10-12 eggs to hatch in the summer.