detail a couple of quibbles.



To my mind, one has to look at the differences between eastern and western populations of alterna. All of your point apply to a much greater extent to the eastern populations, which are much more contiguous (connected by corridors of good habitat).



In the west things are quite different. Alpine, Xmas, River Road, Davis, BG, etc are all isolated from one another by large expanses of unsuitable habitat, so that gene flow between them is a rare event. And the "look" of animals from each locale reflects this. Both "genetic drift" and normal selection pressure exert their strongest influence on such isolated populations.



That's why I myself spend little time in the east-I just find the western alterna (and not incidenaltly subocs) more interesting, even though they may be harder to find.
-----
Brad Chambers

WWW.HCU-TX.ORG



The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

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