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I was given this Kingsnake that was brought into a local petshop, I was hoping is was a local snake but I have seen pics of I think they called them chainlink and not native to california. The dark is actually brown and it has a dark belly. Thanks. KB

Looks like a Splendida (Desert Kingsnake) X California king intergrade....
These occur in the wild on the eastern part of the Calking range and the western part of the Splendida range......
Neet little stripe it has on its tail......
I think it Looks nothing like an Eastern (Chain King).......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Looks like a splendia intergrade as JLassiter mentioned above.

but there are some cali kings from L.A. county that look like that. It would be a hoot if someone picked it up locally 9wildcaught) as those are fasr more sought after.

Zi will let the Calif kingsnake experts chime in who know the area better..
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Cool! I was hoping it was a local king, that's why I asked for it, I have grown up here in So Cal and watched so many fields get developed, their were always kingsnakes around years ago and now they're pretty much gone. I'm going work these guys at the pet shop to remember who brought it in and try to get a local. Thanks. KB

This is a L.A. County king. Direct locale from the oil firlds surrounded by nothing but city and concrete in the middle of Los Angeles. I have 4 of these and they will get darker with age. Picture is of a 2009 baby.

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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

It looks something like what was formerly known as L.getula yumensis, a dark phase of the Cal king, found around the Cal-Arizona border area, along the Colorado River, and elsewhere, etc. Some folks have crossed Mexican Black Kings and Cal Kings and the progeny looked similar as well. The dark head and thin dorsal bands are typical. Maybe FR or Brian Hubbs or Kirby or some other Cal king enthusiast will chime in...? Nice animal, good luck with it. Vic H. Imperial Valley, Ca.

I definitely agree with the splendida x Cal. king ID (formerly known as "yumensis". No way of telling for sure if it was crossed by an individual, or a wild caught though, but it is an EXACT textbook-looking phenotype of the naturally occurring yumensis intergrade form, head pattern, body pattern, coloration and all.

Nice pick-up I'd say!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

...there is a very active and interesting thread related to this on another forum right now at:
www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28624

I agree with John, and Vic, but mostly Doug, looks can be deceiving and there's no way to know 100%. If it was from Cali, too far from splendida range though, IMO.
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Todd Hughes

Man, what a heated discussion it is too!!! It does make one wonder about subspecies though. I am apt to believe L. getula will be reclassified like E. obsoleta into clans with the various subspecies being relegated to nothing more than demographic representatives within their respective clans. I often speculate about the validity of splendida and holbrooki being subspecies. These are the only two snakes I actually thought about integrading in captivity due to their extreme similarities (IMO). I have no experience with niger, so cannot comment on that subspecies and its morphological relationship to splendida or holbrooki, but it appears similar. However, I have never looked at a cal king and florida king, or for that matter a holbrooki and florida king and thought "same snake/different pattern" like I do sometimes with holbrooki and splendida. When you start throwing in the "pet shop" stuff into the mix, it gets very hazy indeed. I hope the OP can get some good locality data on that snake and see where that leads this discussion!!!

There is no way to tell what it is unless one knows the origins.

It is like that with most snakes. Otherwise it is just speculation. A pet shop snake could be from anywhere. Sometuimes logic and resources like this help determine a good guess at least.
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

I have to agree. As posted earlier, I hope the original poster can get some locale info on the snake. Unfortunately, animals like this found in pet shops are for all practical purposes just "pet" snakes.

This may give you an idea of what you MIGHT get from a man-made intergrade or cross of a speck and splendida. While I agree that they are more than likely the same snake, I like the way they are split up now, it is easier to know what one is referring to. This is a natural intergrade from an island pop that has no more gene flow. Not the prettiest "morph", but I've sen worse, lol!

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Todd Hughes

Not the prettiest "morph", but I've sen worse, lol!

Actually i think it is beautiful. The fact it is from and island population makes it even more so.
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Thanks, pard, but with all the fire you guys put out, they don't catch the eye of the general snake buying public. Still, a nice group to work with 'cause they have 0 feeding/shedding problems.
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Todd Hughes

>>This may give you an idea of what you MIGHT get from a man-made intergrade or cross of a speck and splendida. While I agree that they are more than likely the same snake, I like the way they are split up now, it is easier to know what one is referring to. This is a natural intergrade from an island pop that has no more gene flow. Not the prettiest "morph", but I've sen worse, lol!

NICE looking PADRE King........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

I like 'em!
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Todd Hughes

Is that the standard expression for this integrade population? Just curious. I know if I found an animal like that in Texas I would probably consider it a splendida. Especially with the high yellow pattern along the bottom below the chain effect. However, I am NOT an expert in ranges/taxonomy, etc. LOL!! I find it confusing at times how isolated integrade populations work and are classified by taxonimists. Most are so unique like stricticepts (sp?) and goini, and well, just special!!! Very cool find with a very cool story!!

Yes, I think it's a cool looking unique variant too, but personally, I wouldn't really class it as a splendida phenotype because of the straighter cross-bars it has, as that is much more a holbrooki characteristic as opposed to the interbands being rounder as in splendida. And additionally, the lack of the sockhead type head it displays. It really looks perfectly intermediate to me.

On another note too, most people think about intergrades as being basically a 50-50 composite when they look at them, when in fact, they can be all sorts of different percentages of either type(s)and would still be considered true intergrades.

best regards, ~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

yep!
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Todd Hughes

That is one of the three types we have to work with down here, the mainland population has some speck gene flow from the mid coast, the island pop has no gene flow except possibly during storm events(hurricane) and the western forms of my county seem to have there own specific morph. Thin banded with some naturally occurring hypo looking animals, just variance, really, but I have not come across a solid speck this far south, where some are classifying the animals here in the speck range, others splendida.

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Todd Hughes