Its not a snake problem, its a human problem, most of these snakes were named by convienence. That is, one was found and it was named, etc etc. There is no one type. The types that were named were arbitrary. It just as well could have been the intermediates were the species and the species are the intermediates.
The names are just something to start with, they are not all powerful. This goes for captive morphs, they are simply names, the animals, are what they are, not matter what we call them.
For instance, they keep changing scientific names, but the animals are still the same. It really doesn't matter.
The part I had big fights with Hubbsy about is, He uses the word intergrade. Which is totally wrong. Kings color and patterns are based on phenotypic pressures.(S factor) and are almost never a product of intergration. To intergrade, one type must be pure and then breed to another type of pure, the offspring would be intergrades.
With kings, they carry(genotype) a wide range of genetic possibilities and express what works locally and on a timely basis.
Besides, we have no concept of what they looked like when they migrated across the states. Most likely, the habitat was consistent and so was color and pattern. As climate changed, they became isolated and changed to fit the local S factors. Of course their is more, but that's it in a nutshell.

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