That's really good "range" info you just gave. I'd love to make the trip down, if I can find the time. I'll try to make it near the end of June. Maybe I can fly in to Port Lavaca.



Your location in Nueces Co. is important because you can check on intergrades. Your SPR's might be intergrades, but I think Nueces should have mostly meahllmorum. Maybe some intergrades are influencing the population from the north, but the intergradation zone with emoryi is about a county away.



Also, according to KJ's map, slowinskii is ranging as far south as Matagorda Bay. Calhoun Co, is on the other side as you know, and Aransas is just south of that along the coast. I believe slowinskii is using coastal habitat to move south and could be intergrading with meahllmorum in Calhoun and Aransas, maybe even influencing the snakes in Nueces. I would love to be able to prove there's an intergradation zone bt. meahllmorum and slowinskii. Of course, that would mean they are unlikely separate species, but rather subspecies in the guttatus complex.



Keep me posted when you find w/c snakes, and especially when they lay eggs. Twelve and thirteen are actually pretty large clutches for a Great Plains rat. That might be above ave. for your county, and could prove to be good data. I need to do some work along those lines, but don't expect my first clutch until 2006. Slowinskii and meahllmorum probably have very different average number of eggs in a clutch, although I don't have that data at hand. It might help to see if they are intergrading.



If I come down we'll have to cover the whole TX coast from Matagorda on down, along the Rio Grande, and up by Hebbronville and Freer. That sounds like a lot of work. Should take at least a week. Wow, I'm getting tired just thinking about it. Talk more about that later. Thanks again for the post.



TC




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Ratsnake Haven: Calico and albino Chinese stripe-tailed ratsnakes, Mandarin ratsnakes, Chinese twin-spotted ratsnakes, South Korean Dione's ratsnake, Great Plains rats and corn snakes

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