>>TC, I've been meaning to reply to your post for some time. Personally, after viewing the pics of davidi alone, I think it deserves unique generic status. Its scales are keeled on an order with carinatus, maybe more so, but it has round pupils. The pupils alone seem to considerably distance it from carinatus and quadrivirgata. Probably closer to schrencki, which would make sense given geographic distribution.
>>On a side note, my quad loves eggs!
>>
>>Shane
>>-----
>>Lifelist


Carinata, quadrivirgata, davidi, and schrencki are all very different from each other and I would think have been separated for a very long time. I link davidi with carinata, tentatively, because of the differences they have and separation, but if carinata were different enough from other Elaphe to give rise to new species then the direction, to the northeast, would be a good direction to go in. The differences they have could be explainable from moderation of carinata's characteristics, adaptations to new ecosystems to the cooler north. The change in the eye shape could be from an adaptation to a more diurnal way of life, in which the eliptical eye wouldn't be necessary. However, I don't claim to be the expert on this. It's just a suggestion, and there could be several other possibilities for the evolution of davidi in the location it's at.

Thanks for the discussion and keep at it. We need all the workers we can get on this part of the world.

You still are keeping quadrivirgata? For some reason I thought you moved on from those guys. That's great! What kind of eggs are you feeding them, and how often? Do they break the eggs, or swallow them whole? Great to be able to make those observations. I think the snakes of the main Japanese islands have been separated from the mainland forms for a very long time, possibly since the Miocene. The distances in relationships are pretty large. Japan is another great place to study the evolution of these snakes.

Happy Holidays again...Terry

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