Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am finding these dark bellied varieties of the brown and yellow cal kings very attractive. How common are the dark bellied Newport-Longbeach morphs? I have never really seen one at the shows, etc. I have always been a fan of the black and white desert phase cals and have a pair myself. Also interested in the black/dark brown and bright yellow varieties. Is there a term for this variety as well??

I'm not an expert in Cal Kings at all, but didn't the Banana Kings come from these?
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Yeah Jorge, you are correct....Banana kings did originate from the Long Beach-Newport phenotypes, and especially after they became more line-bred for more yellow coloration, and many times a bit less pattern too.

Hey Kevin,.....

I am sure you could find some of those floating around with dark venters, but it really depends on the individual lines that you might happen to come across. Not all of the wild populations of Long Beach-Newports from Orange and Los Angeles counties,..etc.. have solid black bellies, but many do. Just like some splendida have solid black venters, and some are more intermediately speckled.

A good indication of NLB aka "Newporter" lineage animals seems to be the strong, thick dark stripe on their tail after the the vent.

Hubbs and I saw a kid walking around Daytona in 2008 with one of these as a matter of fact, and we both stopped him and looked it over real well. It was labeled "Banana king" or "high-yellow" as I recall. But it was indeed a text-book Long Beach Newport phenotype, and of course it also had a wide dark stripe on the tail portion as well.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

A friend of mine has the banana cals het. amel. However, they are too high yellow for me LOL. I like the more chocolate colored animals with less yellow. I saw one recently for sale and you can see the solid tail past the vent. Decent looking animal. Not sure what the belly looks like, but the dark bellied cals are really catching my interest as well as the black bellied spendidas!!

Yeah, I understand what you mean bro. You are interested more in a wild looking phenotype that better represents what they would look like in nature, and I don't blame you a bit there!

The male splendida I have also has a solid black belly too, while the females is a bit more speckled.

Good luck with getting some of those that are exactly to your liking. I'm sure you can get your hands on some nice ones if you look carefully.

male splendida with solid dark belly.....

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

This probably doesn't matter to you, but most of the Newport looking kings you see in captivity are mixed with striped kings that originated in San Diego. A lot of them have the stripe running down the tail. With a real Newport, the stripe ends just before the tail. You also see a lot more yellow or light pigment on the sides in these captive born Newport's than you see in the wild. Here's a wild caught Newport I found this spring.

From what I've seen and learned from others its pretty rare to find one with a mostly solid brown belly. Most of the time if the belly is brown its only partially brown. I'm not sure about captivity, that might be different if they are selecting towards that. I keep my eyes open and rarely see good examples of true looking Newport's because everyone is more interested in mixing the patterns to get the strangest patterns they can create. BTW, I don't breed kings consistently and rarely have anything available, but here is a Newport I produced this year with a crazy pattern. This is F1 from L.A. Co.

Most of the yellow and black kings you see are juveniles before the black changes to dark brown. I've never seen a true black adult king with yellow. A lot of the kings you see in pictures that look black are actually really dark brown when you take them out in the sun and that includes most from the desert. I think I read in Hubbs book there are yellow and black banded kings in Arizona, but they might be really dark brown too. BTW, props to Doug for giving out accurate information. Good luck with your search.
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I like that one you found in the top pic! Did you keep it or just photograph it? Is it even legal to take Cal Kings? I think I remember long ago it was not legal?
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Thank, man. No, I just photographed it and released it. The laws are pretty strict here in CA. You can legally keep up to 4 wild caught Cal kings as long as you buy a fishing license every year. Its illegal to sale native reptiles, but several years ago they started allowing people to buy a permit to breed and sale only 3 species of snakes native to CA. Those are Rosy boas, Cal kings, and Gopher snakes. When you buy a snake from those breeders, you get a permit number with your snake and you can keep it legally without a fishing license. There's no limits on those snakes and albino's have always been legal to sale in CA.

Back when I was 15 years old I really wanted a Cal king after reading about them in a book but back then you couldn't buy them in CA anywhere and I didn't know how to find them. About a year later we went on vacation to Tucson AZ and I discovered they sold Cal kings in the pet shops down there. I begged my mom to buy me one and brought it back home to CA. lol
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Thanks for posting those photos Ross. The top WC Newport is a very nice looking representative. That particular phenotype is growing on me, plus the fact my wife was living in Longbeach, CA when we met has some goofy meaning to me LOL!! I think my best bet is to look around and buy some "crappy" banana cals from someone LOL!!

hahaha Yeah, that's about the only option left because I'm not aware of any Locality Newport's being available anywhere. What's cool about finding them in the wild is they are not common at all. In some areas of Orange Co. you might find as many as 1 out of 10 being the Newport phase, or 1 out of 50 in parts of L.A. Co. Then there are Newport's that deviate from the typical striped look and look more banded. Those have been named "Scrambled banded" Newport's in Hubbs book. They are a lot rarer and as of now only two examples have been found in recent years. Both were found in 2006, one by me and one by another field herper named Josh. Here's the one I found in 2006. None of the bands reach the belly, so its more like a bonch of big blotches down the back. All other Newport's that have popped up in that area since then have been the striped type.

Here's an old male also found in 06 that was intermediat between the two forms.

As far as Long Beach goes, there's an oil field out there that produces hypermelanistic kings known as "Grease kings". Not the prettiest of snakes but they are well known from LB and are available from time to time. There are guys on this forum that breed them. I was lucky enough to find some in 2006 and produced some this year.

Wild caught male

Its offspring

This male was exceptionally dark and was held back.

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If you ever want any like that just let me know and I'll get you in contact with someone that has them.
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Oh,..I'll bet he does!..LOL!

Man, Ross, you are definitely one of the "kings" of kings when it comes to Cal. king field herping bro. I have seen lots of your field posts and killer photographs too man. I just looked at that excellent FHF post you did on these and the "oil field" greaser's and such!.........KILLER STUFF bro!.....congrats on all those smokers you have seen over the years, as well as have owned and bred! That light hypo Banded Cal. king you photographed next to the darker typical banded animal was insane too bro!

Just wanted to say how much I admire your work and posts on the different varieties you have come across over the years.

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Wow, thanks a lot, Doug. Its always nice to hear that. There's not that many of us out here in Cali that are hard core Cal king guys, as far as forum users go. Basically its Me, Hubbs, and Brian Hinds (Fundad). Everyone else likes Cal kings but are more into Rosy boas and zonata. Its better that way because there's more habitat for me to hunt that those guys stay out of. lol The hypo you are talking about is probably the coolest snake I've ever found, fallowed by that scrambled banded Newport I just posted. I'm glad you liked the post, thanks again, man.
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Yeah, credit where credit is due I always say!

I am certainly familiar with those other guy's you mentioned too, and they also have some incredible field posts as well.

HERP ON!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Can't believe I wasn't mentioned in that post LOL.......
I only have about 20 locales of Cal Kings in my collection........and have herped cali for 30 years now.
Anyway, here are a few "Grease kings" or Long Beach Kings.

some babies,

Maybe tommmorrow I will post a bunch of the Cal Kings I am working with.

L8r Shannon

They look very much like "Yuma kings (Yumanensis)......

Awesome stuff Shannster!

Yeah, I remembered you had several cool localities, but I wasn't sure which types you still had and were working with. After seeing the photos there, I do recall those nice yumensis and greaser's you had for sure!

Post those others when you get a chance bro!

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

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

>>Maybe tommmorrow I will post a bunch of the Cal Kings I am working with.

Pics or it didn't happen......LOL
Show some off Shannon!
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Sorry Shannon but I've only known of you as a breeder, not a field herper. lol Nice Grease kings! Did you collect them your self?
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LOL, I was just clowning anyway Ross.
No I didn't collect any from the Oil Fields but a couple good friends of mine did.I do allot of herping though and will show some cool cal kings later.Almost all of them are collected by me but a few are gifts from friends.

L8r Shannon

Sounds good, Shannon. Its always nice to see what others have. I wish I could have kept more of the cool looking kings I've found, but the law doesn't allow me to hoard them. lol I have pictures though, so I guess thats all that matters.
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