hey Bernd,

I think both Stull and Duellman, both site phenotypic and geographic conditions to separate and evaluate the two recognized forms of this species. My guess is that with the complexity of habitat types that exist in the intergration zones for these two ssp. a more complex situation may exist in much the same way that we see some unusual animals in some of the affinis-sayi intergrade zones.



Someday if I win the lottery I willexplore Pituophis more thoroughly over all its range! There is a lot yet to learn. Pituophis offers us a good window into Continental biogeography.......





The founders of the "hypo-melanistic" group are from a very precise known locality well with in Pituophis deppei deppei range. They originated from 1.1 WC animals from Los Mombres, Durango Mex. A breeding of WC father to CB daughter produced offspring with a color and pattern aberancy. Most folks don't aknowledge that this group has locality specific origin for some reason but they do. However, because they have a pattern aberrancy you can't utilize saddle counts to ID them.



The founder male was a very black and white snake with with a bright yellow tail, ( literally just the last 8-9 inches if memory serves me). He was as black and white as any northern out there..... The female was also relatively black and white but she had a pale brown almost "pastel pink" head. It has been a while but I remember it that way. They threw offspring that were quite variable from blk and wht, to some that were a fairly intense banana green-yellow...



Kardon once coined them the "variable pinesnake" for that reason. I wish we had the opportunity to work with other localities of these guys as my guess is that a huge range of local variability exists.



For me one of the great questions is what happens in areas where this group approaches lineaticollis?

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