I thought it meant "red" or "ruddy." I may be mistaken. However, I can tell you from personal experience, back when lots of reptiles used to come in from Mexico and collecting was legal, all of the rubidus looked like that. They were very black with pinkish-red bars coming up the sides. The bellies were orangish as were the cheeks. There were numerous white and reddish speckling over the dorsum but it was obscure and mostly on the skin between the scales. They were marketed as "red-tailed indigos" but never really had red tails. They were very distinctive in coloration.

In recent years I've seen the basically black ones in U.S. collections. Not to start anything, but they look nothing like what I knew as rubidus, and I've wondered if that's what they really are. Just a thought. Like I've always said, if you don't have actual collection data, a subspecific designation can be pretty iffy.

Cheers, Terry Vandevenbter

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