I just looked at Stull's work and it shows that annectens has a ventral scute count range from 210 to 253. As I suspected there is awide overlap with affinis. These two groups are best diagnostically divided by some rather obvious morphologic characteristis. On P.c.annectens the dorsal pattern is characterized by a series of black, dark brown and or grey saddles that are 1-4 scales long and 4-8 scales wide these being separated by interspaces of 1-3 scales. There are 55-92 on the body and 14-36 on the tail. On the sides of annectens there are a series of 4-5 lateral spots with the upper most being almost as big as the dorsal saddles with which they fuse at the corners to form a chain like pattern to give this subspecies their trade mark name "annectens" which is latin for chain.
With all of this said, affinis lacks the solid black, dark brown or grey saddles. The saddles in affinis are most often pale brown, tan or brick and are larger, so they tend to be fewer in number. The rows of lateral spots are fewer and the uppermost series tends not to connect in quite as nice a chain like pattern. P.c.affinis will have a less broad snout and a more pronounced rostral scale as compaired with annectens.
The longest annectens studied by Stull was 1.62 meters long and Klauber noted an individual of 1.74 meters in length. A buddy of mine in Ramona Ca., Travis M. has seen 5' long individuals so do not use length as a sole criterion for diagnosis of subspecies.
Stull's Monograph is hard to get and some of the taxonomy is older but the diagnostics, artwork and natural history make it a must for anyone whole wants to know more about Pituophis. Hope this helps. Cheers, Ginter
