Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not a big debate or anything but when I was younger the Conant Field Guide used to show "goini" or the Appalachicola or the Blotched Kingsnake. It also used to have what was called the Suwannee Kingsnake. Now, both of those are considered to be intergrades of Florida Kingsnakes and Eastern Kingsnakes.
My question is, if they are both just intergrades, why do they look so drastically different?
Just idly wondering,
Karl H. Betz

LOL!

*inside joke*

I think they are truly intergrades that have become localized to “breed true”. I think snakes probably pretty much stay put when things are good and there is plenty of food, mates and prime conditions for both activities. I believe they only migrate out of necessity, such as one of those “hundred year floods”, fires, drought, etc. Probably vast regions could be wiped out periodically and eventually others migrate in as conditions return to “normal”. The remnant originals and the new migrants end up interbreeding. Where you have a region between populations of Florida King types and the northern Eastern types, for example, there are bound to pop up some oddities as the alleles work themselves out, creating some new patterns perhaps, that may end up inbreeding until the next hundred year flood or whatever, and the process is repeated with the newly refined intergrade and whatever migrates in. In nature this goes on for hundreds of years. Just my 1 cent worth. (not quite a 2 cent worth)