The so-called "brooksi" were once thought to be a separate subspecies of Florida king. Since that time long ago, it has been more accurately re-classified as just simply a clinal variant of floridana.

Also, it was once thought that the lighter individuals were ONLY found in extreme southern Florida, and they can actually be found in a number of different places in the Florida peninsula, including in, or very near where the other darker forms range. It is thought that these lighter brooksi forms are basically found around the lighter colored oolitic limestone rock that is prevelent along many of the man-made canals that line these canals in southern Florida. It seems that the darker one's tend to be found where the earth is much darker, as in the muck around the cane fields around Lake Okeechobee and such.

They have been called brooks for so long, today breeders still tend to refer to the lighter colored ones as "brooks" kings, even though there are many different morph varieties of these produced today.

The Pinellas area of Florida is also renowned for having exceptionally pale yellow individuals that are known as "sulphur" brooks.

The term "brooks" today tends to be FAR too over-used, and alot of people throw the name in there even for the much darker normal forms for marketing purposes because it is looked at as a more revered name as opposed to a Florida king, but in essence, they are all just different variations of floridana.


regards, ~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

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