Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am wondering if anyone is familiar with Alan Tennant's 1985 Field Guide to Texas Snakes, specifically the patternless Lepidus pictured on the front cover. No reference is given in the book, and I was hoping for info on a local.
Any help would be greatly appreciate.

John

When the book came out someone said it was a wild caught lepidus from the Comstock area and placed in the Houston zoo. I can't swear to either statement but do remember thats what I was told. You might ask Mike Price about it, although he never answers my emails, but he's the expert on lep leps in the U.S.
I have a lep from the Eagle mountains that is terracotta orange and has a very reduced pattern but not as much as the one on Tenants book. BA

Isn't there info about who took the picture? Maybe contact them.

>>When the book came out someone said it was a wild caught lepidus from the Comstock area and placed in the Houston zoo. I can't swear to either statement but do remember thats what I was told. You might ask Mike Price about it, although he never answers my emails, but he's the expert on lep leps in the U.S.
>> I have a lep from the Eagle mountains that is terracotta orange and has a very reduced pattern but not as much as the one on Tenants book. BA

Did you by chance get that eagle lepidus from hollister? Curious.
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HCU
Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

No, not John. Got it from a guy named Mike Forstner but he got it from Troy's Dad who legally collected it in 1993. Its a real beauty but I have never photographed it. BA

That Lepidus was found in comstock by a DPS officer who gave it to the Houston zoo.It never reproduced.

Thanks Norm!! Guess it was you who told me that! BA

Like mentioned above, that snake has now passed away. While interning at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collections at Texas A&M College Station, TX., I got to see it firsthand when the zoo sent the deceased body to the collection.

Thats a bummer. Too bad there were never any offspring produced. Probably would of been normal looking anyway but heterozygous for patternless. BA