no offense, but the map sucks. Sorry and intergrades is an odd word when talking about polymorphic snakes such as getula.
There are indeed pure black with no hint of pattern kings in So Az. The problem is, My good friend Hubbs, has a somewhat different idea of what black is. To me its simple, one with no banding or speckling. And they are here.

Hubbs and I have different ideas how these kings work. He somehow things there is geneflow currently and there is not. The maps are actually hundreds of currently isolated populations of getula kings. And they do not intergrade. Many locales have a wide genotype that expresses in a range of patterns we recognize of one type or another.
There are indeed corridors along river valleys where the most current geneflow occurs, but there are thousands of isolate populations.
When thinking of getula kings, the pattern types are often intermediate not intergrade. AND THESE PATTERN type are useful in areas of constantly varying conditions. Dry conditions express certain color/pattern types, wet conditions other. And all in one area. The funny part is, we have no idea of what the ancestor or mother king that occupied the U.S. looked like. My bet is, nothing like any of the current kings. Best wishes. And I really like Hubbs. Hes just trying hard to make the snakes fit his stype of books and not make his books fit the current snakes that exist in nature.

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