Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there any way to easily tell the difference between a Taiwan Beauty Snake, a Mocquard's Beauty Snake, and a Chinese Beauty Snake?

I'd like to get a Taiwan hatchling in the future, and I know that a local breeder supposedly has them, but aside from just trusting the breeder that he knows what he has rather than a Chinese, etc., is there a way I can tell the difference?
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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 2001 Coral snow cornsnake
0.1 2002 Pastel Ghost poss Het Amelanistic cornsnake
1.1 2002 Bloodred cornsnakes
0.1 1998 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake (gravid w/second clutch)
1.0 2000 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake
0.0.13 2004 Eggs (potentially normals, hypos, caramels, and ambers)

Pattern can be a good determiner. Size of the breeder adults is another. Taiwans are going to be larger than most Chinese or Mocquards. My Taiwan has a very clear bow tie pattern along his back where as most Chinese have more of a broken ladder-like pattern.

Here're a couple of links that might help you out. I just did a search on google for beauty snakes and they popped up.

http://www.herper.com/snakearticles/beauty.html

http://www.cunninghamselaphe.com/oldworld.html
(on this one scroll down for pics of Taiwans and Mocquards)

The attached pics are of my 10 year old 7.5 ft (I'm pretty sure) Taiwan.
Lora

In addition to what has already been mentioned, you can also try the following link:
http://www.ratsnakes.com/Etaeniura.html

However, if you can get your hands on a copy of "Monograph of the Colubrid Snakes of the Genus Elaphe Fitzinger" by Klaus-Dieter Schulz, that would be the best. That is where much of the information on the net is from, but in the book Schulz also gives scale counts, tongue color, and other traits. It is a relatively expensive book though, although I did once come across a copy at a library.