From what i have seen the crossbar on the "old" Canal stock S. florida "brooksi" have a different look to their northern locales. Yes the northern locales get yellow and you can find both yellow and dark phenotypes under the same board or location. Same thing is south Florida. but as far as locales it is not the look but rather were the snake came from. Same goes for cal kings. There is variety but there are also the subtle nuances that make a connesoir apprciate them.
But there are also a few things that bother me about the old canal stock (and when I mean old it is the area that is no longer being collected) . One is that there were rumors of people releaseing dark northern floridana in the area. Other is that the area is not longer existent or accessable. I am refferring to the old canals. Not all. Most of the collectors of recent d=find more dark specimens than light. Back in the day south Florida collectors found more yellow phenotypes, or at least released the dark ones and kept the lighter ones.
From the old stock that I used to keep before the advent of the hypo I knew which animals came from that area. There was a unique look they had wether they were darker or lighter. Breeders did selective breeding to produce more yellow stock and bred sibling to sibling. That is how the reccessive trait of the New England axanthic was discovered.
Of course there are other light colored floridana all over Florida. i think they go up to about 300 miles before the Georgia border. From there it is mostly intergrade with Cal kings. The high Yellow sulfur is a good example. But the crossbars are all different.
Either way you look at it "brooksi" is more of a herpetoculturists term when properly applied through preserving the old stock through breeding effors . I have said before i wish the term Brooksi was done away with and just refferred to locale or county orf origin. Like S. Florida king. Or name the county or locale... much like what is going on with california kingsnake.
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