Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anybody have any idea when the new name for the snake previously known as L. g. goini is going to be revealed?
Jeff Robbe

Lampropeltis Getula Meansi

Keith
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Keith's right. The paper has not come out yet but it looks as if this will be the new name. So anyone calling them "goini" will be shunned! LOL

Thanks guys, I saw the special but I obviously missed that. I remember them making reference to naming it after Bruce Means, but the name must have gone by me like a ship in a fog. Great snakes though. Jeff Robbe

They just said it was being named after Means. A few people already knew the name "meansi", like myself, before the special aired, and began publicly using it afterward.

You know I knew it as well and I just thought to myself maybe I just blabbed ! but he did use some kinda reference in the show ??? Ill go back and watch it again. Ive had to keep the secret since this summer and it was very hard to do LOL.

Keith
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Curious though if many will even consider "Meansi" at all. "Goini" by most have been considered just an intergrade as it is. I believe , may have to replay the airing, "Meansi" is considered to be the totally patternless form of the Appalachicola king and all others are considered intergrades.

Either way as numbers of these snakes decrease in the wild I'm sure what was once common, many years ago, will one day be considered something that never was to begin with. Up until canals were dug thru the Everglades there was to have existed "Brooksi" a very distinct form of Florida King or as some call them the true Florida king (all depends how far you want to go back in history). Yet to read any current write-up on "Brooksi" you would think they possibly never existed at all.

Only time will tell. I would enjoy hearing from those that have seen Kings in the wild during those years and their comparision of what we have in collections today vs what they saw as commonplace then.

Rich Hebron

I feel like I just got thru writing this, so if you feel adventurous scroll down and you will find the last rendition. Simply put, Brooks occured in two distinct forms back in the old days. The typical (or yellow phase) which you could still find as far north as Homestead (south Dade County) in the late 70's. Then there was a small population around Turkey Point, that were stark black and white. These tended to be a bit more patterned than the yellows. True Brooks had an extremely high band count 78-100 which helped give them that "patternless" look.

I always found it interesting that the more this area was developed, the less frequently Brooks were refered to as a distinct ssp. Even Conant in his early editions called them Brooks. Now there are so few left in wild populations that when you factor in the intergadiation from the more northern mutts...it may well be impossible to get a proper live specimen for genetic (DNA) testing. Research in that area may have to be done with "old pickled" specimens to establish the truth.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."