Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone, I was herping in an area that has both of these sirtalis subspecies. How can I tell them apart? The valley gartersnake (fitchi) is said to sometimes have red on the side of the face. I definatly seen this in a few specimens. In others, it was inapparent, and I don't know if it's still fitchi, or parietalis (red sided). Does anyone know of a concrete way to tell them apart with scale counts, stripe location ect.?

Thanks kindly for your help

Ian

fitchi do have the red on the head. fitchi generally have a row of red spots along the side stripes where parietalis have black checkers with red between them, extending to the vertebral stripe. parietalis in Canada tend to have the red spots along the side stripe only, but have no red on the head. Pics would help with id.

Thanks, your description was the clearest I've had yet. I love to share pictures, but have a zillion and all are too big to post on kingsnake.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g315/joeysgreen/BC 2007/th.jpg

I don't know if this works, but it should be a link to my fitchi pick on photobucket.

So if I don't see any red on the side of the head, should I assume it's a parietalis?

Ian

well, kinda hard to say at with looking at the pic....looks like a fitchi...