Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hmm...

Scales are very weakly keeled. Big bug-shaped rat snake eyes. This one was docile as anything (although his big brother nailed me on capture). I was certain that this guy was a darkly patterned corn snake -- or, perhaps, some sort of gray/black rat snake intergrade -- until I noticed the single anal scale...on this one and two others I've found that look just like him... Found atop the Cumberland Plateau in Sewanee, TN.

This isn't a Lampropeltis spp. is it? I've never seen an eastern milk so dark and the head shape seems so much more like a rat snake than a king or milk snake, but I can't explain that anal scale... I'd love some commentary from someone who has seen one of these before.

More photos available on request. Please help me identify this little dude!

Thanks a lot.

BJW

That looks like a naturally-occurring intergrade between a black ratsnake and a gray ratsnake.

Scott

Yes, "sballard" is absolutely correct!,.....that's exactly what that is, a natural intergrade of Black Rat x Gray Rat.

I've read some field studies somewhere before about some individuals not having fully developed/divided, discernable anal plates, as they should normally have.

But in any case, that animal has ZERO Lampropeltis lineage in it's background, and no doubt whatsoever that it's a very thin natural intergrade Black x Gray that needs some meat on it's bones!..LOL!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I agree, definitely a rat. Anal plates are not a hard-and-fast character in any snake; there will always be some oddballs in the population- in some species individuals with the "wrong" anal plate type may be 10% of the population! Just like snails- some individuals coil the "wrong" way.