Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's one my Long Beach Grease Kings. The pair of hatchlings I got last season were produced from stock collected in one of the 'infamous' LB oil fields.
This past weekend I found my escaped adult female that I had collected from this same field. She'd been gone for nearly six months and I had pretty much given up on finding her...

Here she is, followed by one of the hatchlings.

I've heard this hypermelanistic gene is dominant but havent been able to verify that myself.. Has anyone here experienced this...???

Thanks for looking.

byron.d

Gorgeous female...........and congrats on winning the ultimate game of hide and seek!

Where exactly did you find her?
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1.0.0 Lampropeltis getula holbrooki
0.1.0 Lampropeltis getula californae
0.0.1 Lampropeltis getula nigra
1.0.0 Lampropeltis mexicana thayeri
2.3.0 Eublapharis macularius macularius
0.0.2 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
0.1.0 Gerrhosaurus major major

Thanks! she was found in my garage - the same place she has escaped from. She did have very many opportunities to leave the building and I dont know if she did or not. I found her while moving some furniture.

byron.d

Nice! If Only I knew then what I know now.
I used to live in Naples L.B. in the early 90's.
Oh well! LOL!
-Phil
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Work is the curse
of the drinking class!

Congrats on finding her, she's a beauty...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings (Spot and Fry)
1.0 Florida King (Gamble)
1.0 Ball Python (Mitch)
0.1 Red Belly Piranha (Fluffy)
1.0 Australian Shepherd (Spooky)
1.0 Springer Spaniel/Beagle mix (Snoopy)
0.1 Cat (Ecco)

Awesome you found her, and she's doin' fine. Love those dirty lookin' inner city L.A. Kings (they oughta be the mascot for the hockey team... maybe then they'll start winning). I haven't been out to lay more boards behind my parents house, but hopefully I'll have some luck.

Nice Kings!! I grew up near that "Oil Field". Used to play hide and seek in it lol. I have 2.2 of those kings from that field. In fact mine look just like yours. I've only seen that hyper gene in males. Several have been bred in captivity now and only the males come out that way. Found several in the field myself and again only males hade that gene. wierd.

PL

Weird that only males show the trait.... Now you've got me guess about the pair I got - they're both very dark.

Have you noticed the females from that field being darker normals with more webbing or pigment under and around the yellow scales?? My adult female (pictured) looks over all darker than the other female I collected in Seal Beach, but not really out of the range of normal.

Thanks for the info Paul.

byron.d

Hey byron, good to here you got her back. You were pretty lucky to find her during the drought to begin with. That's interesting what Paul is saying because out of the 3 I found in that field, only the male shows hypermelanism, if its even hypermelanism. The females look very close but the ventrals are normal. I still can't figure out why the ventrals are normal on some dark ones and regular on others. It also seems, after seeing a few photo's and your king in person, that the dark ones with normal ventral patterns have more dark pigment mixed in with the yellow dorsaly than the ones with dark bellies. The two I have, have dark bellies but they don't have nearly as much dark pigment up top as the normal bellied dark kings I've seen pictures of. Remember, I'm only going by two examples Paul sent me and your king. All three were juveniles but my dark bellied kings were not very dark above from juveniles either. Seems really strange and complicated. I wonder if Hubbs book will cover any of this in detail. I doubt it. lol He did tell me once that the hypers can have normal or dark bellies. Here's the two I have. The one showing its belly is from a different area. Cool post man.

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Ross - I was hoping you would. That's interesting about some having dark and some having light bellies. Now that you mention that.... The small female I collected in Seal Beach has very normal color and pattern but her belly is very dark and dirty looking - much like the one you posted. I wonder if that could be a het. marker of sorts... Time will tell for sure.

It was awesome to see yours in person. Have you noticed them getting darker or lighter at all as they grow??

I think we'll get a much better understanding of this gene when we start reproducing them.

Take care Bro.

byron.d

I have one that's lightened up quite a bit since this picture.

It started off a dark brown but has become lighter than the others larger than it. Here's a few more.


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The snakes are varible in that field. I have a female that is very dark brown (Almost black) with bright yellow. Most snakes I've seen from there are med brown and even light brown. Only about a 3rd of the males found there are hyper. Most of them are norm. Bellies vary just as well with checkerboard to webbing.

P

congrats on finding it! the yellow rocks! very nice,,,,,,,,thomas davis
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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

I've been present for the finding of 5 kings in that field, and all had the hyper-melanistic characteristics, both females and males. The only difference is in the darkness of the ventrals and amount of dark coloration in the yellow bands. It varies, but all are hyper to some degree. The area of influence for the hyper gene seems to be around Signal Hill and vicinity, and the kings get lighter and more normal as you move away from that immediate area, but hyper snakes can be found all over coastal L.A. county to one degree or another, just not as common as in that field. I don't know of a single normal Cal King from that field.

Brian Hubbs

Well Hubster, I guess we have different opinions on what normal is. I've got one king from there (A female) that looks like it could have come from Riverside. Then again it's a juvi. Normal in Long Beach too me is a medium to light brown. Hardly any hyper gene showing. Who cares lol!!!

PL