I have to wonder why all those taxonomist's wasted all their time painstakingly describing all the minute differences between them for all these hundreds of years, when we have so-called "experts" here on the forum that claim they are all one in the SAME!..hahahha!



Because very often, the samples they looked at were extremely limited - and specimens that match the scale rows, ring counts, etc. are often found in what is suppose to be a different population.



Furthermore, very often they find that it is really only a few genes responsible for the radically different phenotypes.



I do think Eastern getula are distinctively different from Western getula, but I do think nigrita is really just a melenistic splendida and I would not be surprised if at some point in the future, all western getula become the same subspecies or even get split out from getula to make a new species, "Western Kingsnake"



I'm still though not opposed to hybrids, even if the western kings really are just different pattern phases of the same thing.



This is a hobby, and different people breed for different reasons and collect different things.



If you only like locale animals, only buy locale animals. If you don't like intergrades and hybrids, buy from breeders you trust to properly represent what they have.



This isn't rocket science.

Different strokes for different folks.
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