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I was reading a paper on Molecular Systemmatics and Pituophis by Rodriguez-Robles and De Jesus-Escobar. It was technical and may be way over my head. If I read right if you draw a line straight south out of Albuguergue you get the rough dividing line between affinis (to the west) and sayi (to the east). Deserticola range cuts into the northwest corner of New Mexico. At the DNA level they found affinis to be ancestral(older) and direct lineage to sayi and deserticola. Intergrades occurring at these "boundaries" happen and are recognized.

My question is: Is it possible that most of the pits found in New Mexico are intergrades of affinis and sayi with a splash of deserticola from the north?

Second, How does this all tie into all the discussion about localities? Seems to me that by using locality, subspecies is no longer an issue.

What are your thoughts???

Mike B

The concept of subspecies still works well to describe any snake. Is it perfect? No. Are there intergrades? Yes. It is workable to define an intergrade zone by saying affinis x sayi for example. But, how much affinis and how much sayi is in any intergrade found in nature? Who knows, you can only go by looks if you can't do your own DNA analysis. I don't think locality typing takes away from the use of subspecies, it just refines it to the most specific degree.