Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female Huachuca Mountain Kingsnake Lampropeltis pyromelana woodini, and have been trying to find a male for two years now. Does anyone know af a breeder in the UK or Europe that I can contact.

Regards John

Here are the current notes on pyromelana from the CNAH web site. Might help you decide what to search for.

Taxonomic Comments:

Van Devender et al. (1992 Herpetological Review 23: 10-13) stated that L. p. infralabialis was a barely distinguishable population (see page 11, left column, paragraph 5) and stated that the lack of one infralabial scale and the presence of white bands across the ventrals 50% or more cases (the two characters used to distinguish L. p. infralabialis) were highly variable (= not diagnostic). They also considered L. p. woodini a junior synonym of L. p. pyromelana, because the characters used to diagnose and define the species L. pyromelana were so variable as to render all races found in the United States as unrecognizable.

Collins & Taggart (2002 Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. Fifth Edition) submitted for consideration the proposal by Van Devender et al. 1992 op. cit.) to a snake systematist group composed of Frank T. Burbrink, Jeff Camper, Harry W. Greene, L. Lee Grismer, Robin Lawson, James R. McCranie, Andrew H. Price, Javier Rodriguez-Robles, and Samuel S. Sweet, and they agreed.

Lemos-Espinal, Julio A., David Chiszar & Hobert M. Smith (2003 Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 39(3): 53-58) recognized the last remaining race of this species, Lampropeltis pyromelana knoblochi, as a distinct Mexican species, Lampropeltis knoblochi, based on external morphology.

Shannon Hiatt
Texas