Lampropeltis alterna, according to all scientists who have knowledge of this species and all known published information, has a silvery gray iris.

Someone with the online name of troy h recently claimed that he has found a wild caught L. alterna without a silvery gray iris. The only evidence he has is a photograph of a snake of unknown species, unknown origin and unknown locality that does not have a silvery gray iris. Because troy h was trying to refute my theory with this piece of "evidence" I did not want to appear as though I were ignoring evidence. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and discussed what effect such a find, it authentic, would have on the validity of my theory of the origin of Lampropeltis alterna and its unique iris color. In no way did I verify this claim, nor did I endorse this claim as valid. It remains to be seen as to whether this specimen is a hoax or not. troy h has already claimed that no scientific journal will publish his finding. I already countered that the only reason no one will publish it is if it were a fake. Therefore I will patiently await the publication of evidence that will show that not all individuals of Lampropeltis alterna have a silvery gray iris.

For the time being, however, I am not going to accept this single photograph of unknown origin as scientific evidence. Indeed, given troy h's behavior online, I suspect that the likelihood that this snake is not a wild caught L. alterna is very high. His photograph is included below. I notice that his photograph is being stored in a folder named "temporary_web_files." Therefore it may disappear from cyberspace shortly. If it does, it is further evidence that this claim is more likely to be a hoax than not.


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Removed copyrighted image.

Edited on April 15, 2004 at 20:58:49 by phwyvern.

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