Thats not the point I am trying to make. The use of leonis is not about a species or subspecies, YET. hahahahahahaha
Its about a color phase what we are referring to. And that color morph is based on original discriptions which were based on certain TYPE animals.
We call alterna phase and blairs phases, based on their pattern. Not on because they may or may not be different species.
With Thayeri, there are three distint color patterns in nature. The leonis phase, which is lacking red and has alternet markings to some degree, also they normally has an increase in band count.
Then you have MSP, milk snake phase, with looks like a milksnake, Black split widely by red, reduced band count.
Then you have thayeri phase, which has bands or blotches split by red but not widely split, medium band or blotch count etc.
basically, its those three that are captives are derived from and of course the melinistic phase.
Its just confusing when you call one the other. hahahahahahahaha If you want this group of kingnsnakes to be understood by newbies, I would think it would be helpful to call them in basic color/pattern phases. It doesn't matter to me, I already know what they are. hahahahahahahaha
I hear there is recent evidence that will help clear this up some. MTDNA wise. Or make it worse.
In my experience, there is some very behavioral differences with these phases of animals. That is, IN THE Field.
But like Tanner(if I remember correctly) did with alterna, I collected a wild gravid MSP that had both leonis and MSP offspring in the same natural clutch.
The problem with some scientific nomenclature is, its lost its utility. That is, its not very useful to the average user.
Our names should be of utility, useful.
It would be useful if you referred to them by their actual color pattern. And yes, there are overlaping individuals, But then they could easily be discribed using those terms. Cheers
