The Texas coral snake ranges from the southern United States south to northeastern and central Mexico.

[citation needed] "Pastel" (pink, translucent cream, and very light blue) coloration has been noted, and completely black (melanistic) specimens, are known.

[citation needed] All coral snakes are shy, secretive animals, typically nocturnal.

[7] It also occasionally eats small lizards,[6] but the consumption of rodents by coral snakes is rare.

However, this mnemonic is not always accurate, due to the aforementioned color variations, and its usage is dangerous to both snakes and humans.

[3] Coral snakes are proteroglyphous, meaning they have a pair of deeply grooved, semihollow, chisel-shaped, fixed fangs in the front of its upper jaw, through which venom is injected.

[8] North American Coral Snake Antivenin (NACSA), formerly produced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, is the only antivenom approved by the FDA for use in the United States.

[9] However, Wyeth stopped producing the antivenom in 2003, citing low demand and the high cost of manufacturing.

[12] Prior to the availability of antivenin, the fatality rate of coral snake envenomations has been estimated at 10%,[9] and death was primarily due to respiratory or cardiovascular failure as a result of paralysis induced by the neurotoxic venom.