These were purchased as Texans. I have ZERO experience with rubidus. One thing I did notice was the lack of anterior dorsal pattern you can normally see in adult Texans. These are uniformly solid black, with a little brown sort of tint especially posterior dorsally and laterally, but no spotting or pattern is there. The female especially has white on her 1st through 6th supralabials, her infralabials are almost all white. The white then sort of diffuses into a light salmon/white on her ventral scales for about the first 1/4 of her venter with black banding starting under the throat, the remainder is uniform black. She has 17 rows of dorsal scale anterior and 15 rows posterior, 8 supralabials. The infralabials are edged in black, forming lines that reach the chin shields, but are not nearly as pronounced as the male.
The male has a much smaller amount of white (cream, actually) on the 2 through 5th supralabials, and the infralabials all have some white, each with a black posterior edge forming black lines that reach the chin scales. He also has the same light salmon/cream diffusion for about the 1st 1/4 of his venter, then uniformly black. He has 17 rows of dorsal scales anterior and 15 rows posterior, 8 Supralabials.
If they are rubidus, that's fine, because I was going to try to add rubidus to my collection anyway. That just means that I have to keep looking for a male Texan, at least...preferably another female also.
I never really questioned it...as I said, I have no experience with rubidus, don't think I've ever even see one (until now). I did think they were awfully dark, but never really thought that much about it because I have seem some variation in Texans. I expected rubidus would have some red...hence the name. The only Dry's I have experience with to this point are couperi and melanurus, and limited experience with erebennus.
So, what do you think? Rubidus? Erebennus? Do I need to post more pics?
