Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here is another pic not that it helps much.

thanks.

JIM

It's definitely not a Drymarchon of any kind. One of the earlier shots shows the anterior body, and it seems to have 21 dorsal scale rows. Drymarchon have 21 dorsal scale rows at the posterior edge of the head, but this reduces down to 19 and then 17 within a couple of inches of the head, so that would be totally inconsistent.

A question: why are all the photos distorted, making the snake look thicker than it is? I have taken the liberty of reformatting the picture, and am posting it in its more-or-less correct shape

Cheers,

Wolfgang

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WW Home

the pictures are a bit messed up because the guy at the photo place tried to make them better but the picsals were so high that I had to change them so they would fit in the kingsnake photo gallary. If you like you can email me and I will email you the photos the way he put them on the disc. thanks.

JIM

Pie bald racer, or some species of coluber like buttermilk?

After looking at all the photos again and in direct contridiction with another of my previous posts. I would say this animal is a species of Psuestes. I worked with sulphureous for about as year, the animals I had all came from Tom C. in those huge shipments of "jungle racers" which contained not only Psuestes but also Chironus. The pattern is correct. Head shape and body size are also as I remember from my adults. They also fed well on prekilled rats even when freshly imported. I think these are of a different locality/country (hence the coloration difference) I have not been able to locate any photos with this coloration but were I a betting man, Pseustes is where my money would go. I would assume they were brought in through one of the big importers and subsequently were released as they are not a very desirable animal. I think I paid $10 each for my 7-8' adults. Anyway...just my .02

Horridus

First, let me say that I find it pretty incredible that any snake of this size could be left unidentified on this forum, full of knowledgable people. I wouldn't have guessed it possible if I hadn't seen it myself.

I would ask some of the old time importers to take a look. I agree that it could be Psuestes, but I don't have a lot of confidence in my guess.

If it really came out of the ground with a number of others there is a whole nuther mystery to unravel.

Email Glades Herps, Burgundy and Strictly and Zoological Imports. If these guys don't know, I would go academic. Let us know.

Joe