Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This little C. oreganus helleri did. We found him crossing the road looking for a place to digest his new meal. He sure was fat.

ummm... does that mean it's a cross, or do you mean c. viridis helleri or c. viridis oreganus? not trying to be a jerk and pick the message apart or anything. Looks more like oreganus to me. Nice find nonetheless though!
-Will

Actually, we are too far south for it to be a northern. Ive seen many helleris here. This is what the babies look like. They get much darker and tend toward that helleri color later in life. I heard the name was changed to Crotalus oreganus helleri, no longer viridis. That was what I meant by the name. Also, the color is a little off from the camera, but Im sure its a helleri.

ahhh.... I stand corrected then. I hate when that happens... I went through the same thing with people a few months back when they did it to cornsnakes!
-Will

Im sorry, did what to cornsnakes? Do you mean change the name? If so, I was unaware.

Yeah... it's no longer elaphe guttata. Instead it's Pantherophis guttatus. Actually... a lot of the elaphe have changed because they feel that a lot of the species that were just being classified as variations or subspecies are actually in fact seperate.
-Will

Really? Wow. I still see the use of elaphe a lot, now I dont know if they are accurate or not.

Alligator lizards are also under a new genus. Gopher and pine snakes have been upgraded into full species. I learned all of this via kingsnake.com. Ive also seen someone divide glossy snakes into multiple species, I dont know if that is accurate or not. Taxonomy is a terrible field. From what Ive heard, some scientists regard the southern pacific as C.v.helleri, some C.o.helleri, and a few place it as full species, C.helleri. I use C.o.helleri, but I cannot recall which other species (other than C.o.oreganus) are also part of the C.o. group, if any. It may just be the pacifics, I dont recall.