The California red-sided garter snake is a subspecies of the common garter snake. This slender subspecies of natricine snake is indigenous to North America and is one of three recognized subspecies of Thamnophis sirtalis found in California. While commonly confused with the subspecies T. s. concinnus, it is biologically part of the population of the subspecies T. s. tetrataenia, as pointed out by Boundy and Rossman, but was preserved as T. s. infernalis as a neotype under ICZN code Article 75 in a 2000 decision by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 2000 in order to preserve the existing subspecies taxonomy. Most California red-sided garter snakes have a pattern of blue stripes on a black and red background. Their average total length is about 55 cm, with a maximum total length of about 100 cm .

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