Arizona elegans is a medium-sized colubrid

Colubrid

A colubrid is a member of the snake family Colubridae. This broad classification of snakes includes about two-thirds of all snake species on earth. The earliest species of the snake family date back to the Oligocene epoch. With 304 genera and 1,938 species, Colubridae is the largest snake family...

 snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 commonly referred to as the glossy snake. The genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Arizona has only one officially recognized species, A. elegans, with several subspecies. Some have recommended that A. elegans occidentalis be granted full species status.
Subspecies of Arizona elegans include:

• Arizona elegans arenicola
  Arizona elegans arenicola
  The Texas glossy snake is a subspecies of glossy snake, a nonvenomous colubrid snake.-Geographic range:It is found in the Chihuahuan Desert region of the southern United States and northern Mexico. Its range overlaps that of other glossy snake subspecies, and interbreeding is likely...
  
  Dixon
  James R. Dixon
  Dr. James Ray Dixon is Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection at Texas A&M University. His main research focus has been the natural history of Texas amphibians and reptiles and he has authored numerous field guides and...
  
  , 1960 - Texas glossy snake
• Arizona elegans candida Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - Western Mojave glossy snake
• Arizona elegans eburnata Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - desert glossy snake
• Arizona elegans elegans Kennicott
  Robert Kennicott
  Robert Kennicott was an American naturalist.-Biography:Kennicott was born in New Orleans and grew up in "West Northfield" , Illinois, a town in the prairie north of the then nascent city of Chicago....
  
  , 1859 - Kansas glossy snake
• Arizona elegans expolita Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - Chihuahua glossy snake
• Arizona elegans noctivaga Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - Arizona glossy snake
• Arizona elegans occidentalis Blanchard
  Frank N. Blanchard
  Frank Nelson Blanchard was an American herpetologist, and professor of zoology at the University of Michigan. He is credited with identifying several new species, including the Broad-banded Water Snake, Nerodia fasciata confluens, and the Florida King Snake, Lampropeltis getula floridana...
  
  , 1924 - California glossy snake
• Arizona elegans pacata Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - peninsula glossy snake
• Arizona elegans philipi
  Arizona elegans philipi
  The Painted Desert glossy snake is a subspecies of glossy snake, a nonvenomous colubrid. The epithet philipi is in honor of Philip Monroe Klauber, son of herpetologist Laurence M...
  
  Klauber
  Laurence Monroe Klauber
  Laurence M. Klauber , was an American herpetologist, and was considered to be the foremost authority on rattlesnakes...
  
  , 1946 - Painted Desert glossy snake

The glossy snake and its many subspecies are all similar in appearance to gopher snakes.