Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got this little guy from a nice couple its a desert king crossed with a California king heres a picture of the parents and a picture of the little guy getting ready to shed

Your adult desert king seems to be an intergrade also.
-----
Diego

SWCHR

Hi, and this is not about you, its about that term, intergrade.

To be an intergrade, two closely related snakes must meet in nature and breed and produce offspring that are intergrades between the two parent types(whatever you want to call them)

Of course its different in captivity. In captivity, intergrades are dominate, the rule rather then the exception. As most adult pairings are not from individuals from the exact same locals, so they are mostly local intergrades and again of course, all the way to flat out crosses up to genus.

Back to the term. I think a better term is intermediate and only in reference to pattern as no body is looking at scalation, etc.

The reality is, intermedia patterns occur in the middle of a species range, and not only on the edges. As with Desert kings, there are large blotched desert kings in southwest texas, and they are not intergrades with anything other then splendida. You see, the habitat, defines pattern(phenotype) So having an intermediate pattern may be of benefit in drier habitats.

The same goes for Southern az. In the grasslands, we normally get good Splendida kings(small blotched, high yellow on the sides), but as they enter more xeric habitats, they again start to show larger blotching or an intermediate pattern, if you will.

This is more dependant on habitat, then if they contact(have geneflow) with banded getula(cal king pattern, or yuma king pattern) In many places where intermediate patterned splendida occur, they do not border or have geneflow with other pattern type getula.

So saying they are intergrades really does not apply.

Saying something is an intergrade means you have knowledge that its the product of two types interbreeding. That is in both nature and captivity. If not its simply part of the natural occuring phenotype, or in captivity, its genotype.

Thanks for putting up with me. God(Brian Hubbs) have been talking about this, hopefully he reads this and chimes in. Cheers

Makes perfect sense.
-----
Diego

SWCHR

LOL. Frank (my Apostle in AZ): You are very wise, but the way I see it, any pattern found in an area where patterns resembling pure subspecies of any type, or in-betweens, is considered an intergrade. That zone is due to past interbreeding by some of the parent subspecies. There can be 3 or more subspecies involved in an intergrade zone, and the zone can be fairly large. The subspecies do not need to currently interbreed for the area to be an intergrade or intermediate zone. Is that clear now? OK, gotta go...carry on...

I was just sharing pictures, the lady i got this male from said she had a cali king and a desert king(spendida) and they had babies.

Wasn't trying to ruin it. I was just making an observation. It's a very nice looking baby King.
-----
Diego

SWCHR

I think those are cool!

-----
Todd Hughes