L.t.arcifera and L.ruthveni have a convoluted history. Long story short, what we once called "Jalisco Milks" in the hobby have recently been found to be L.ruthveni from a population in Jalisco, Mexico. The only true L.t.arcifera in the US (probably) are Laguna de Capala (Lake Chapala) locality animals that Bob Applegate formerly worked with. I believe Shannon has a breeding colony of them now. Differences in scalation, coloration, genetic make-up, and hemipene morphology are used to tell the two species apart. A more detailed description of the arcifera/ruthveni history is found on the sierraherps website (link off of the kingsnake.com main page), dedicated to mexicana complex kings.

Hope this helps
-Cole

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• Does anybody's milk like "aged" mice?? - wpglaeser2003, Sat Feb 23 08:14:30 2008
• RE: Does anybody's milk like "aged" mice?? - shannon brown, Sat Feb 23 11:03:32 2008
• RE: Does anybody's milk like "aged" mice?? - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 00:07:34 2008
• RE: Does anybody's milk like "aged" mice?? - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 00:21:54 2008
• More Arcifera Pics... - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 10:11:39 2008
• Tweek - close - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 10:12:40 2008
• RE: Tweek - close 2 - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 10:13:41 2008
• Tweek - Dorsal - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 10:14:30 2008
• P.S. size - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 10:20:50 2008
• RE: P.S. size - shannon brown, Sun Feb 24 11:40:56 2008
• How do you tell? - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 13:56:53 2008
• RE: How do you tell? - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 14:13:33 2008
• RE: How do you tell? - Sunherp, Mon Feb 25 14:55:14 2008
• Thanks Cole! - wpglaeser2003, Thu Feb 28 10:29:37 2008
• RE: P.S. size - antr1, Sun Feb 24 11:43:59 2008
• RE: P.S. size - wpglaeser2003, Sun Feb 24 13:36:08 2008
• RE: Does anybody's milk like "aged" mice - mfoux, Sat Feb 23 21:37:36 2008