Posted by:
ginter
at Fri Jan 15 11:08:36 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by ginter ]
i could not resist putting in my two cents worth on this ID. My gut feeling after looking at the head is that this animal is not a P.c.deserticola. Although the cervical or neck pattern seems somewhat reminiscent of deserticola the rostral scale is indicative of sayi/affinis. Those two groups can be difficult to distinguish and over their range are both often referred to as "bullsnakes". The ID is compounded by the fact that the animal came from a pet store so you have no locality info to assist you.
If the pet store got it locally that could help (i.e. you live in west Texas or AZ, etc....) If it came from a breeder to your pet store you get no real help that way.
It is important to keep in mind that both affinis and sayi are extremely variable even within regional populations. Your animal really has a "southwestern sayi" look about it but that is a educated guess at best...... it could be an unusually pale northwestern sayi or even a unusually contrasty eastern affinis, or a breeder's mix of locality known or unknown founders. Could be an affinis from the intergration zone with deserticola although again the rostral scale is significantly longer than it is broad which is a key diagnostic feature separating the western forms of catenifer from sayi.......
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RE: Bull or gopher? - ginter, Fri Jan 15 11:08:36 2010