Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Obviously it is banded - but what phase would you use to describe this Cal King?

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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Dark brown and yellow banded.

Coastal.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com
^ Updated 9/23

She's a captive bred mutt - father is Antioch, CA locale (east contra costa county, SF Bay Area) and mother is amel probably heavily influenced by coastal.

Anyway - she has the webbing of her father, which gives her the same look (in my opinion) as some of the kings people have been identifying as grease kings.

I don't call her that, she doesn't look like the grease kings I've seen as identified as such by the field herp gurus (IE Hubbs) - she has cream on her snout (grease kings I've seen photos of have black snouts), and the yellow only look "dirty" or "greasy" because of the dark webbing in them, not because of a hypermel effect.

But after her last shed, she looked so much like a few I've seen posted as grease that I thought I'd share the photo and see what people thought.

It is interesting that her webbing seems to be becoming more pronounced every shed. Her last shed measured 27 inches, she's 10 months old.
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I've noticed that it does in fact get more and more pronounced as the snake ages..

I have a yearling that I collected in the spring that is just starting to show the webbing... When I collected her you couldnt see any traces of it at all.

byron.d

I agree with you both, I've never found a hatchling with the webbing. Even in the same fields where I've found webbed adults, the hatchlings always look normal. The Coastal Cal kings of So Cal can have no webbing to heavy webbing. The grease kings have the heaviest webbing of them all and are considered a hypermelanistic morph. This is all strait from the big mouth of Brian Hubbs. LOL

FunkyRes, your snake confused me because it's snout is cream colored. I've never seen that in any So Cal specimens. That's why I didn't chime in. I figured it was from up north and don't know if you guys call your Brown & Yellow kings "Coastals". Nice snake BTW.

I assume that is where the cream snout comes from.
That's also where the webbing comes from. The mother is amel so webbing might be hard to see in her, but I don't see any in her bands.
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

O.K. that explains it. Is that the king you bred to the Lavender?

No - the one I bred to the lavender is also a WC - Redding, CA locale.

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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Similar story w/ my yearling male that I caught here in Chatsworth.

reako45