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Does anyone know of a lineage of albino black kings?

Chuck Hurd Serpentology

>>Does anyone know of a lineage of albino black kings?
>>
>>Chuck Hurd Serpentology

I take it you are referring to L. g. nigra and not nigrita, correct?

Wish I could help, but I have never heard of an amel L. g. nigra before. Every other getula has an amel though so I wouldn't think it's too far fetched......

But unless there's solid provenance then it could be the result of an "introduced" gene from another ssp. And, I know, that's what you are trying to figure out.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Yes real amel nigrita exist, or at least existed at one time. I don't know if pure ones are still out there but the late Lloyd Lemke offered them in the late 90's or early 2000's. I'm pretty sure he said they came from wild caught Tennessee stock and I do remember that they existed before the amel Chain Kings. These amel nigrita were dimorphic too, with one sex(I forget which) tending to be more yellowish and the other more of an olive color.

Lloyd had them on his price list and I also saw him selling them at one or two of the San Diego shows. I think they never took off because the babies are small and hard to get feeding compared to other getula ssp.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

You are thinking of L.g.nigra (Eastern Black kings) from Tennessee, not L.g.nigrita (Western Black kings..aka MBK's)from the Sonoran Desert. Anyway, yes, there used to be some true amel nigra around many years ago, but the authentic lines seemed to basically disappear altogether. A fair number were crossed into the Eastern Chain kings (L.g. getula) and are sold as such now and then.

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

What DMong said. Tennessee = L.g.nigra and not nigrita. As to albino nigra, Don Hamper had them at one time many years ago but I'm not for certain where they came from and what the availability is these days. From what I can gather the albino L.g.getula originated in east Tennessee as an intergrade at best and most likely straight up nigra. From there it was crossed in to getula. For what its worth, L.g.nigra is not sexually dimorphic when it comes to coloration. They are dimorphic in the sense that males grow much larger than females.

Phil

Yep!. I believe there have been a few very authentic amel Eastern getula from past years from all the extremely detailed and lengthy stories I have compiled here, but knowing which ones would be truly authentic now if one just magically showed up on a show table would be the REAL trick..

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

A buddy of mine had a pair of what was called albino easterns maybe ten years back. I could tell something wasn't right because the band count was crazy high. Even more so then what you would see on a Jersey getula. I took this as a red flag that they had been outcrossed with some other ssp's. There could be other lines that I'm not familiar with though.

Phil

I think you would be getting TRICKED if you bought one now a days.
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

Yeah, it would have to have some VERY tracable origin history to satisfy me.

A little later, I am going to post a slew of interesting info on these along with many photos. I am very certain that there were indeed some authentic amel Eastern getula found over the years, but several have died, been sold to whoever, and disappeared. The other side of the coin is that there were definitely some vey bogus hybrid lines involving Cal. kings, nigra, and other ssp. as well.

As you, me and many others know all to well, even when there are certain authentic lines of certain snakes out there, it sure as heck doesn't mean some idiots don't cross things into some of them as time goes on. Just one perfect example would be the MBK x whiteside and Florida kings being produced right now as we speak......(quadruple facepalm)..

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

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Lol! Yeah, those hybrids really ruined some cool stuff that would be really popular now a days. The kingsnake x ratsnake ones you mentioned are ruining stuff that isn't even a morph, it speaks volumes!
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Gerard

"Sleep my friend and you will see, your dreams are my reality. "

www.livebaitclip.com

GONE FISHING!!!

The normal colored nigra are not dimorphic but Lloyd did state the the amels showed dimorphism. From what I saw with the ones on his table it appeared to be true but I guess it could have been coincidence and a small sample size.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

You're right, thanks for the correction.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

The babies can be a challenge. They're smaller than some of the other kings as hatchlings, but the real issue is getting them to accept f/t rodents. A small percentage will take these from the onset and a decent portion will take live. There is a percentage however that seems to have no interest in a rodent diet. As hatchlings they are easily large enough to take pink mice, the question always is, will they?

Phil

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com