




Moderator: Scott Waters
very nice Nick...RobertH wrote:Porter, its actually a longnose snake! just kidding. Its an interesting find, and a great first snake of the yearNot quite my first snake of the year but, so far the best, was this rosy I flipped myself.
Coastal Rosy Boa (Lichanura trivirgata roseofusca) by NicholasHess, on Flickr
Heres to a great 2016![]()
Nicholas
Porter - To answer your questions ....Porter wrote: I do have a couple questions about your find Steve that only require vague answers. Nothing that will give away specific location...
1) what species/subspecies of gartersnake are found within the same biome/locale as the newporter? (Within range of influence)
2) Are stripe phase gopher snake known to be found there? (within range of influence)
3) Are longnose found there?
Steve is Spot On. And if you are speculating Steve, (speck-ulating hee) you are more correct, except that it is not only children but adults who decide to become Breeders - encouraged and incited by the internet. They suddenly lose interest or get in over their head due to an illness in their group or pair, or other unforeseen expenses. I know of these situations as fact - and even of a teacher making an event out of releasing herps.Steve Bledsoe wrote:Something else to think about when we find unusual patterns on some of our local native snakes.....
The reptile pet trade is huge, and as we all know, sometimes when junior gets tired of his turtle or snake, it's released into the wild. I know of several cases here in Orange County where people I know have found corn snakes, milk snakes, great plains ratsnakes, and other common pet trade species. People here locally have shown me photos of high-yellow designer Cal Kings, and photos of splendida kings found in our local parks very near my home.
Couldn't it be possible that the speckled pattern on the kingsnake you found (Porter) came from the influence of a released holbrooki or splendida kingsnake? Or maybe it could have come from a released San Diego high-spot striped kingsnake? Influence from the same species makes more sense to me than influence from hybridization with a non-similar species. Just sayin'.
It's hard to see unless you go to the flickr page and zoom in on the photo. I went ahead and cropped a section of the two to show the genetic code for speckling...not color!...the mtDNA is only influencing the speckle pattern! It is much more uniform on these because they seem to be the ones passing down the speckling mtDNA. That's the visual evidence equal to blue eys, red hair, and fleckles (as an example of how traits are passed from parents).Kelly Mc wrote:ok I followed your rainbow to this post and my comment is mainly I guess about how you refer to gopher snakes as Speckled - and liken it to the lampro speckling.
I don't see it personally, I see the gopher's pattern as classic outline disruptive. Blotched, broken, but not speckled to me.
Correct me if I am misinterpreting that.
Please correct me if I'm wrong Nicholas, but I believe that is just a normal roseofusca, at least that's what it looks like. Not an intergrade (if you still recognize the old taxonomic designations).take a look at Nick's snake in this post. I don't know what the species name is but I can tell you that by just looking at the brackish meshed pattern of the boa... That it is an intergrade. the pure rosy Boas are more well-defined stripes.... I would have to assume that the same thing would happen in a hybrid situation.
rosys rule. i unfriend you...Porter wrote:Ill take your word for it. I no nothing about rosys and have no interest in them.
Remind us again how rhino's evolved in your theory?Maybe we'll find out 20 yrs from now that those boas are a species derived from hybrids just like longnose