Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've noticed that a few people on this forum seem to be confused about what morph is what when it comes to certain Cal Kings. Sure, by mixing gene pools you can get almost anything that resembles something in the wild, but for those who want to use the correct names, here's a couple:

Mendota morph (New name-Eiseni morph)

Davis morph (new name-Delta morph)
As you can see, the Delta looks nothing like an Eiseni (Mendota) and is not found within the same range. Of course, if you cross breed them you'll get both. Hope that helps.

By the way, I did not find either of those snakes. The first was found by Brian Hinds (I took the pic), and the second was found by J.P. Stephenson and the photo is his.

I theen so! Ken

Manuel Labor

Why do the names have to change? Sounds awfully self-serving and lame...
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Diego

Mendota morphs were originally described as "Ophibolus getulus eiseni" in 1882. I just reverted back to the original name since they cover a much larger range than just the vicinity of Mendota, and the name was misleading. I did the same for the Davis morph for similar reasons, except that the Delta name was coined by J.P. Stephenson and refers to the area of their range, not an ancient scientific name. I could have called Eiseni the "San Joaquin aberrant" morph, but that's too long a name. See, I told you people not to argue with me...

Which all amounts to squat. They are morph names that are well established in the hobby and don't need re-vamping just because some over-inflated, self-proclaimed "expert" needs to justify his new book.

I guess I never got the memo saying not to question a load of crap being passed off as the new gospel.
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Diego

YOU are a very rude person. I will not be communicating with you anymore. I will also not allow you to buy a book. We can't be tossing pearls to swine, you know...lol

Seriously though, you can misunderstand my sarcastic satire humor all you want, and you can call any morph by any name you want, but there is no standard list of morph names in this hobby...so I created one for Cal Kings. You can accept them, or not. I could care less...

If, by "sarcastic satire humor" you mean trolling around, throwing thinly veiled insults at forum members and a misplaced superiority complex, then yes, perhaps I'm not understanding it.

If you felt the need to list the morphs in the hobby, why not do so plainly? Why the need to put a spin on things the way they stand? Doesn't make sense!

I do not mean to insult your sensibilities, Mr. Hubbs. I respect the time and hard work it takes to write a book, especially one about such a convoluted subject. Matter of fact, I thoroughly enjoyed your "Mountain Kings" book and am looking forward to your Getula book. Don't worry, though. I will not buy it, since you are forbidding me. I'll be the guy that reads your book one tiny bit at a time at the book store. Yes, THAT guy.

- The swine.
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Diego

come on now just keep on smilin and call them all getula,,,,,,,,thomas davis
Link

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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

You obviously don't know me, and therefore do not know when my arrogant attitude is just for fun. Sorry about that.

Serious answer: There are several morph names used in the hobby that needed to be redefined based on 1) new information, 2) a desire to protect certain localities from over-collection, and 3) an attempt to pigeonhole all 70 morphs of Cal Kings that are found in the wild. I not only named many of them, but also drew range maps for all the aberrants. My original post here was a good natured jab at Kerby (at least, I hope Kerby took it that way. He usually doesn't pay any attention to what I say anyway) because he continues to lump Davis (Deltas) with Mendotas (Eiseni). New information has definitely revealed that those are two distinct populations (and are actually made up of about 8 different morphs), so I felt it was time to straighten it out. I don't usually post here, and I apologize if my crass humor escaped many, and I also apologize if I offended anyone. Feel free to buy the book, I rescind my ban on you. lol

Wellll....ok. That makes a bit more sense, but I suppose I'll have to buy the book to make sense of it all. Thank you for lifting sanctions on me. I would like my copy autographed, please. Will you be doing signings in the PHX area? I'll buy you a beer.

As far as Kerby goes, well, you're on your own with him!
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Diego

I live in the Phoenix area. Call me-480-456-5202.