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anybody know what kind this could be? It was givin to my son by a school mate and they only said that it was a mexican milk.
any help would be appreaciated.





Warren

of the border. What you have there is known in the hobby as a jalisco milk.Its actually a ruthveni most likely from the state of Jalsico.

Shannon

i thought ruthveni were king snakes? theres a local shop that has an albino ruthveni king. is it mislabled or is there something i dont know about?
Thanks, Warren

Yes,they are actually a king but look allot like milks.
Shannon

Shannon are you saying that arcifera = ruthveni in all cases?

Tony,
Its a bit complicated but yes.All the jalisco milks we see in the hobby are actually ruthveni.The don't key out as arcifera but they do key out ruthveni.

The problem started about 80 or 81 when sevral guys from the Dallas Zoo went to the state of jalisco and collected a bunch of "milks". So in essence they are jalisco milks but they aren't arcifera.
The only thing that keys out arcifera (Bob Hansen correct me if I am wrong) are the lake chapala milks that applegate had a few years ago.I have a adult pair and sure enough they key out perfect arcifera and they are much different than what we thought were jalisco milks,There slender cylindrical bodied smaller snakes with weird shaped heads and many many black crossovers.Arcifera meens "arch bearing" were the black pinches off the red on the top.

Anyway, as far as I know the only true arcifera in the hobby are lake chapala milks.The hobby jaliscos (as I like to call them) are just a western locale of ruthveni.I actually traced my "hobby arcifera" back to the Dallas zoo and they are locale Tapalpa Jalisco ruthveni actually.

the picture here is my "hobby jaliscos" or tapalpa ruthveni.

Shannon

Well, one thing it is NOT is a Mexican Milksnake(L.t.annulata). Sometimes this snake is referred to as a "Mexican Kingsnake",Ruthven's Kingsnake, Queretaro Kingsnake(Lampropeltis ruthveni).The classification of these animals has been problematical for some years now. They used to be classified with Lampropeltis(Milks), but were later removed after finding they more closely related the "mexicana" complex (thayeri),(alterna)of kingsnakes. There is often a barely detectable pale green outline bordering the dark bands, also, the light rings sometimes have a tendency to become slightly "tan" colored toward the belly. Aside from these differences, also the "hemipenes"(penis) are more closely related to "mexicana" kings than milksnakes. This snake is by itself as far as it's classification goes, having no subspecies. This is what I think this snake probably is, but without scale count is hard to "nail down". To answer you're question about the albino at the store,...yes, it is an albino "Ruthven's Kingsnake","Queretaro Kingsnake",same thing........As Shannon pointed out in earlier post, many of these snakes are sold as "Jalisco's", and vice-versa in todays market. Mexican Milksnakes (annulata)are known for having black venters(bellys) and other differences that would be detectable from you're photos, so (annulata) is out of the question.......hope this helped out a little and didn't confuse you much more!(LOL).........................Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

i'd say ruthveni....i understand there's a couple of yet-to-be named/officially described tri-colored species of lampropeltis from northern mexico in the works,the tentative/proposed names escape me at the moment though,sorry...could it be one of those?maybe that would explain why it looks a bit 'off' to us....
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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