Interesting thoughts, and I like what you and Bill both have to say. I have been herping my corner of Texas (south coastal) for 30+ years, and have seen hundreds of emoryi "meahllmorum" in the wild. This is an adaptable animal, and the most common and prolific lampropeltine over much of this region.

I mention meahllmorum because its habitat is different from the typical woodland habitat of slowinskii and from the grassland habitat of emoryi "emoryi". This form is known to intergrade with e. emoryi along a wide zone across their ranges, basically through the middle of Texas. The thornscrub habitat which dominates meahllmorum's range is unique in that it is a combination of habitats. There are thickets of mesquite (woodland scrub) and large areas of grassland with prickly pear (desert scrub), and even riparian habitat at the edges of river floodplains is utilized. A large portion of this region has been converted into cropland where, amazingly, meahllmorum still thrives.

The academics never mention intergrades (or hybrids) of slowinskii and emoryi, but I believe that they probably exist. Slowinskii has been documented as far southwest as Calhoun County, TX, a county where emoryi meahllmorum are also known to exist. If there is intergradation/hybridization this would be a good place to look imho. My personal feeling (opinion) on this group of snakes is that they are so closely related that they should have never been put in separate species, and that the guttatus/emoryi group are all one species with many variants or forms. I believe that the form changes with the habitat, and all have features unique to themselves. Where one habitat type gives way to another, might not intergrade animals also be found? I think it is far too simplistic to say that slowinskii is just emoryi, or just guttatus. Unfortunately, the current trend in taxonomy seems to be to get rid of subspecies altogether. The latest paper from Collins and Taggart has the group split into guttatus, slowinskii, and emoryi, with no subspecies.

-Toby Brock
-----
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

[ Show Entire Thread ]