Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that some people believe that pyro pyro and pyro knoblochi have an intergrade zone that may extend into southeastern AZ. I have seen photos of pyros from the Chiricahuas with full lateral striping. I found this specimen in the Santa Ritas. Is this type of lateral striping exclusive to SE AZ, or is it found elsewhere in their range? Is it just an example of the extreme variablility found in this species or is it a sign of an intergradation area? Your thoughts?

Greg

I have seen it only in S.E. Az., mainly in the Chircauhuas and Santa Ritas. However in the U.S. I have only seen the broken disjunct rings, (What everyone calls lateral white striping, pyros are actually a white snake with red rings or blotches and a red patch on the head. The red is overlayed with varying amounts of black including the black mask over the red patch on the head, reduce the black and more red shows through.) I have never seen the red blotches reduced high on the back leaving pure white sides with red or black speckling like I have seen in Chihuahua, but I have seen knoblochi from the type locality that look just like a regular Az. pyro. I have seen pyros from extreme northern Az. all the way to southern Chihuahua and I no longer even think of them being different subspecies rather than just north-south clinal variations.