Thanks for the extra info. I'll check out that google earth site and it should help me a lot.



I always thought conspicillatus kept to higher elevations than quadrivirgata or climacophora, but Schulz has quads and climacs at from sea level to 2000 m, conspicillatus from 100 to 3000 m. Conspics are also eaten by quads, prob. opportunistically, so I imagined they were more common at higher elevations, to avoid predation. Conspics live in mostly wooded or forested habitats, another reason I thought it was higher ele. Of course, it didn't help either that almost all the specimens I had heard of came from high elevations, except those on Kunishiri. Now it seems like they probably come into contact quite a bit with the other ratsnakes.



I'm still wondering what constitutes a "montane" snake. I usually think of a snake as montane if it lives in a mountanous area, doesn't avoid high elevations, and doesn't venture into flat, lowlying areas. There's very few montane ratsnakes in N. A. The black ratsnake might be considered montane because they inhabit mountains, but they only go to an elevation of around 1000 m, or less. They also venture into lowlands and flat areas with suitable habitat. I don't usually think of black rats as montane, but I believe some folks would call them that. Green ratsnakes, Senticolis triaspis, inhabit mountainous areas. Should we consider them to be montane. They seem to be restricted to a certain habitat zone (thorn scrub), from foothills to medium elevations, sea level to 2300 m, according to Schulz. Probably a lot of folks would call them montane. I don't usually think of them as montane myself, more habitat restricted. If conspicillatus isn't restricted to higher elevations and is common in lower, flatter areas, maybe we shouldn't consider it to be montane either.



The Old World has a lot more montane ratsnakes than the New World does. I could name half a dozen species off the top of my head that live almost exclusively in mountains. The New World does have montane kingsnakes, however, which I include with ratsnakes, since they are so closely related. A good example is the California mtn. kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata. California lies bt. 32 and 42 deg. north lat, very similar to the latitudes for Japan. Zonata can be found from sea level in some areas to over 2500 meters, I believe. I don't think there's many herpers thinking zonata isn't a montane snake. Maybe conspicillatus should be considered montane for similar reasons.



Just some thoughts. Later....TC

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