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thanks

thanks

Looks very Pseudonaja to me, definatley not a Drymarchon. It may also be Coluber jugularis/caspius? Any more info on it?

sorry, no history...
the consensus so far is some unicolor non banded california kingsnake.....
definitely looks like its built to eat snakes........

Check out the very bottom right picture on this page and read the information under it. He calls it the "Newport-Long Beach Mud" form of Lampropeltis getula californiae. It looks like your snake to me. -Jamie

http://www.southwesternherp.com/articles/californiaevariations.html

thanks! that would be very cool if it turns out to be a naturally occurring morph and not some designer snake.
Norm

Cal king?(Lampropeltis getula californiae) Inspite of the incredible morphs of this species with close to 40 years of captive/selective breeding which render it difficult to determine based on color alone, you might key it out with a basic field guide, using scale counts etc. Also, run the same query and photo on the Kingsnake forum, maybe Kirby or Frank Retes or Brian Hubbs or one of the other "Cal-kingaholics" will help you out. I suspect that is an artifact of years of captive breeding, I am skeptical that any such phase occurs naturally in wild populations. Usually some faded pattern would be visible...let us know what you find out. Vic H.

I'm with Nate. It looks a helluvalot like an elapid to me. Be careful.

The head shape defintely does NOT look at all like a kingsnake to me. The scales look quite a bit more iridescent than a cal king also. It doesn't look New World to me but who knows. I agree with the other guy, that it's time to start counting scales rows and looking at headscales with a basic key in hand. Quite a beautiful snake in a somber sort of way! Is it one you've gotten? Surely it must have some history though, it couldn't have just appeared out of no where!

Good luck!
-Chris

There is a species of Mussarana from Argentina that I used to import back in the day that looked very similar. The scientific name was Clelia rustica. I've had 30-40 of them 25 years ago but haven't seen any since. Check the name out and see if there are pics. It's been so long I'm not sure but am in agreement it has an Elapid looking head but so did the Clelia rustica. They were very hardy as I remember and often wondered if anyone still had any...thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

That's funny that was another snake I thought it looked like Clelia rustica, I haven't heard of them being imported for years, Amy I need that snake......lol.
Nate

Nate, I don't believe it's a mussie, even the rustica. Head shape looks wrong to me, besides, this snake has no rear fangs.

What it LOOKS like to me is an Oxyuranus microlepidotus. Problem is, no fangs or venom glands, but the subcaudal scales are divided in the tiapan like this snake. Is it possible it is a de-fanged venomoid?

Doubtful. I'm really stumped. We need some experts to ring in. Doug T. should be able to ID any mussie. So what about it Doug, mussie or no?

Here's a pic of a Clelia rustica

Doug T

One more.

The rustica in this pic has a lighter colored belly than the unknown snake, which is pretty uniformly colored top and bottom. The head shape looks off too. Head scales.... they seem kinda' similar to me. I don't think it's a rustica, but I'd love to know what it really is. Don't get bit until you figure it out.

Doug T

Well Doug, you obviously have a good eye on the mussuranas and see a lot more than I do, but I certainly don't tink you have a good match on those head scales.

It would be nice to look at nice top and side shots of both snakes though so I can see what you are seeing. I do see there are some match up things going on but some of the scale shapes and line ups look totally different to me.

No offense taken on my inability to count/match head scales. I'm no good at it. I'm no good at seeing lots of other things too... it's why my wife buys most of my clothes. She doesn't get to buy my snakes. I'm better at that than her

Have we figured out what it is yet?

Doug T

>>Well Doug, you obviously have a good eye on the mussuranas and see a lot more than I do, but I certainly don't tink you have a good match on those head scales.
>>
>>It would be nice to look at nice top and side shots of both snakes though so I can see what you are seeing. I do see there are some match up things going on but some of the scale shapes and line ups look totally different to me.

Doug, I'm pretty damned good and have seen just about everything but I'm a bit confused on this one....lol
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

This one might help a little too.

It looks like a Kingsnake but I've never seen one like that in color. I've just compared scalation and it resembles a getulus but not exactly....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Hi guys! First off I would like to say thank you to all of you who have been trying to help ID this guy for us. We are still in the dark and have not gotten a positive match yet. I have forwarded pics and info to the Ed at the Philly Zoo, Kevin at the Maryland Zoo, Frank Indiviglio and some colleagues, B.W. Smith at Animal South, and quite a few other people who I don't know! "Mystery" (I got tired of calling him "unknown", lol) comes close in the scale patterns to a few snakes that people have mentioned but it's always just "close". The idea of him being de-fanged did cross our minds as well. As much as I hated to, we give him a live mouse and he hit it, flopped around, rolled twice like he was attempting to constrict then started to swallow. He ate a f/t mouse for us last Sunday and the guy I got him from fed him 2 f/t while in his posession (3 days).

So, at this point we are still asking for help to figure this guy out. I can post/email more detailed or specific pics to anyone if you need them.

Thanks again!
Ame

I have it from a good source it's a L. getula morph. Most likely a cal king, but definately getula.