Hi, Todd.

I agree, yours looks like holbrooki, maybe with a little splendida influence. Beautiful animals. Down in sc. Arizona our splendida look like...

They tend toward melanism and the lighter color is usually whitish. When you get more east, like in Cochise Co, the lighter color is a little less white and a little more yellowish, and slightly more abundant. The venter is usually quite black, but with some banding. Here's an example of that from the Santa Cruz River Valley...

These are great little snakes and fun to work with. I think splendida is a good subspecies, but also that it tends to have some variations in color/pattern from west to east. Holbrooki seems to have a different color/pattern, but is definitely the same species, so they look somewhat alike. I think the intergrades and/or crosses are great looking snakes also. If one wanted to cross a nice splendida with a nice holbrooki, I think the babies would be really cool looking too. As far as the intergrades from the TX Coast, I would probably say holbrooki with splendida influence, or just call them natural intergrades.

With our group from sc. AZ, I call them splendida with nigrita influence, or a natural intergrade. However, in my mind, they are splendida. Whether there is influence from nigrita, or whether nigrita is even a good ssps, is in question. I don't care, they are great snakes and I like them, whether anyone else wants them, or not

Terry

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Ratsnake Haven...researching ratsnakes since 1988

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