Reptile & Amphibian Forums

someone just brought this to my attention,and i think here's as good a place as any to get some feedback....bullsnakes-should they be listed as a pine subspecies?a gopher subsp?their own species?or should the whole damn genus be one species,at least in the u.s.(i.e. merging melanoleucus with catenifer,including sayi)?i have my opinion but i'd like to hear others.i know i coulda/shoulda put this post on the taxonomy forum but it seems no one goes there,lol....
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

I like sayi, I think they control the middle of the board, are built more like pines but look more like sonoran gophers. Their heads are just too huge to be gophers, and they are the biggest of them all. I like it the way it is, but then I am a splitter by choice!
Todd Hughes

Those do look like big-headed versions of P.c. affinis. Great snakes!

reako45

Actaully the "affinis" in P.c.affinis is thought to be derived from The Sonoran gopher's "affinity" to P.c.sayi, our beloved bullsnake so as a matter of symantics I prefer to think of the sonran as a little headed version of the bull.......

I have finally quit trying to educate the locals here in AZ regarding the fact that there are no Bullsnakes but rather Sonoran gophers here....OK, I have mostly quit.

the currently accepted thought is to place sayi in the catenifer group but I have to agree that some of the eastern and midwestern bulls share more in common phenotypically with the pines.

What a wonderfully complex group of snakes. Pituophis taxonomy is one of many reasons that I find this group so exciting.

Happy holidays and enjoy the break while all your scaly friends sleep off the end of an interesting year. Cheers, JGinter