I'll take a little stab at your post. The name change concerns the North American rats snakes. The North American rat snakes of genus 'Elaphe' are changed to genus 'Pantherophis'. It's been pending for quite awhile Brian. Alot of people have known it was coming and have been expecting it. There was a change that needed to be done to separate the Euroasian rat snakes' genus from the North American rat snakes' genus. Some don't like the sound of Pantherophis and need to get used to it. When someone writes a paper that establishes a NEW species or subspecies; then the person or persons writing the paper will name this species or subspecies. They need to give it a name in the paper that is written. The person who wrote and did the work (others contribute) was Dr. Burbrink (sp). He elected to name the new subspecies after Dr. Swolinski. Some people had thought and there may have been pressure to do it; that the next snake species or subspecies would be named after Dr. Swolinski. That's the general idea on your questions Brian. There is more technical aspects to it and I hope I wasn't too far off on it.

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• Ok I have some questions concerning rat snakes..... - hotshot, Wed May 14 11:53:29 2003
• Nice questions Brian . . .> - terryp, Wed May 14 17:31:34 2003
• Terry thanks for the reply.... - Hotshot, Wed May 14 17:43:31 2003
• I think the black rat sn ake is going . . .> - terryp, Wed May 14 18:30:43 2003
• RE: I think the black rat sn ake is going . . .> - Terry Cox, Wed May 14 20:03:22 2003
• I'm sure glad you're reading my posts . .> - terryp, Wed May 14 23:03:01 2003
• No problemo.... - Terry Cox, Thu May 15 05:07:48 2003
• Thanks guys. I got pretty much the same info on another forum as well!! N/P - Hotshot, Thu May 15 07:36:08 2003