Posted by:
Matt Campbell
at Mon Sep 6 21:26:31 2004 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Matt Campbell ]
Terry,
You are definetly right, the Taiwans are huge! My pair are siblings and at roughly three years old they're both pushing 7 feet in length. They certainly can be huge snakes. As to whether the Blues have been identified to species, I think they're still up in the air. A couple comments on the EMBL reptile taxonomy page may help illuminate that:
"We follow David & Vogel (1996) for the subspecific systematic of Elaphe taeniura, which is quite controversial, and the ranges of the subspecies. This author recognises the validity of eight subspecies, one of which has yet to be described."
This is followed by:
"The subspecies previously known as Elaphe taeniura vaillanti (Mocquard, 1905) is renamed Elaphe taeniura mocquardi Schulz, 1996 (nomen novum pro Coluber vaillanti Mocquard, 1905 [non Simotes vaillanti Sauvage, 1877, a subjective synonym of Elaphe porphyracea nigrofasciata]). Note that mocquardi and yunnanensis appear to intergrade in Vietnam (ORLOV et al. 2000)."
The mention earlier the ranges of the various subspecies and have this information:
"mocquardi: People's Republic of China (including Hainan); Vietnam."
" yunnanensis: India; Laos; Myanmar; People's Republic of China; E Thailand; Vietnam."
So, what I think based on this information is that possibly the so-called Vietnamese Blue Beauties may be as you suspect an intergrade between mocquardi and yunnanensis. The EMBL database is the most up-to-date source for what is currently the most-accepted taxonomy, so since they mention a species that has yet to be described, I would say the Blues are probably that species and it may be that they are simply an intergrade.
Anyway, I'd still be interested to know if other breeders know where their stock has actually come from or is the transaction so far removed from the person who actually caught the snakes that we'll never know for sure what the locality of these snakes is and whether or not they're a true subspecies or merely an intergrade.
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Matt Campbell
Animal Keeper, Small Mammal/Reptile House
Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, Illinois
Assistant Curator
Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, Illinois
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RE: One more note about Blues - Matt Campbell, Mon Sep 6 21:26:31 2004