Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all.

Any opinions on whether this is H. Simus or not? The picture is a little blurry but, it would not stay still long enough to focus.

Thanks,

Mike

Here's a second pic. Sorry for the p00p spot. Its does that when it gets nervous.

It's a simus N/P
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or

Thanks for the reply.

I had my hopes up. I was afraid it was an eastern. (Not that there is anything wrong with that)

Mike

Yep It's a female too! Nice catch......What locality is it?
Paul Bollinger
B.S.R.

Sorry for the long delay.

I live in Florida but, the locality is my local pet shop. LOL It set me back a whopping $40. It was actually an impulse buy. There was this little (6 inch) cutie in this great big twenty gallon cage. I had many vacant cages, heaters, etc. so I couldn't pass it up. The owner, who no longer owns the shop, either collected it or bought it locally.

He had it listed as a western with a sign that said, "I only eat toads" I really feel that this was ingnorance of species or sort of a scam that backfired on him. The reason I say this is that he bought everything from local mud turtles that the local kids caught in the area ditches to beat up corn snakes that looked like they had been run over with a lawn mower and then charged outrageous prices for them. He also had a four wheel drive truck that looked like it would get you to Iraq and back without stopping. This tells me that he may have been herping near Ocala (As there have been no records of H. Simus in my area) and found what he thought was an eastern that he could sell as a western.

I may be full of it all the way around but, I do know that I have a great little snake that is more than just a little rare.

Mike