Posted by:
Terry Cox
at Sat Jun 25 09:27:31 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Terry Cox ]
Ivan, I found Chengdu. It's the capital of Sichuan Province.
The reason I was having trouble is because I thought you meant it was near the Yangzte R. and near the coast, like close to Shanghai. I believe this part of Sichuan is pretty mountainous and pretty far west. There wouldn't be any bimaculata there, for instance. Also, the central Chinese dione I was talking about come from the central plains area near the Yellow River.
As far as bimaculata and dione hybridizing, I'm not saying it isn't possible, but I believe there are some morphological differences, as well as genetic differences. I also think their ranges don't overlap very much. I meant before that dione was montane in China, not elsewhere. I think bimaculata inhabits the Yangtze Valley and dione inhabits the mountains north of it, one of the reasons its distribution is spotty. I think bimaculata is subtropical and somewhat fossorial, compared to dione, which is more terrestrial. Bimaculata is also a smaller snake, relatively. I doubt that they would hybridize in the wild.
Hope this is good info for discussion. I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow morning, but will be happy to discuss it more when I return in a week. Locality info would be greatly appreciated. Anyone who is interested feel free to contact me at tmcox(at)ratsnakehaven.com. Thanks.
Terry
PS: Ivan, do you have any pics of your hybrid bimac x dione?
-----
Yahoo group homepage: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ratsnakehaven/
Contact info: www.ratsnakehaven.com
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: Elaphe dione hatching - Terry Cox, Sat Jun 25 09:27:31 2005
