Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Finally got a digital camera. I have been wanting some advice on this girl for awhile. I got her two years ago. She was sent sight unseen from a friend who got her from a collection as an E. indigo x blacktail cribo.She has always been somewhat stocky compared to the other melanarus I have. The head scalation matches a Texas Indigo, not and E. Indigo. I have heard of some other "dwarf" crosses out there and was wondering if this could be one, or possibly a Texan. She is not going to be bred. Thanks for any response and help.

another picture

and another

Mike:

It's difficult to say for certain, the one thing I'm pretty sure of is that it is not a pure subspecies.

It has too much black to be a pure melanurus.

I think the best possibilities are:

melanurus x erebennus (a natural integration)
melanurus x couperi (a hybrid)

If I just saw that snake without hearing your story, my guess would be melanurus x erebennus. The belly color on the front of the snake looks very much like erebennus.

I don't think you'll ever know for sure. It'll be a good pet snake, but, personally,I'dadvise against breeding it since you don't know what it is.

I think you are probably right, Dean. It does not seem to be any part E. Indigo, but seems more Texan. Has anybody seen any specimens out there that may resemble this one or have any pics of crosses?

question the "natural" intergrade part..I have never seen one...I would think this would have to be a deliberate inter-breeding of the subspecies..
I would think a "natural" interbreeding would be much more like a BT and much less(NO) red ventrally...The TXN can be very brown anterior 1/3, but it is much more a speckled appearing brown, sort of a drab black, rather the appearance of this snake..But they retain very colorful ventral scales..The further south they go, they lose the ventral color, but the speckling never goes away, I think, until they "become" melanurus..
Just looking at the first pic, I had no doubt it was a TXN...
An interesting animal and I'm sure you'll enjoy it very much..But I echo others, please don't ever breed this animal..
Deano?? Retort??
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

My point was that melanurus and erebennus integrade over a wide area of NE Mexico. You are probably right though, this animal is mor likely to be a man made integrade, since nothing has come out of Mexico (legally) for quote a while.

I have seem a few snakes years ago that looked like this, and was told they were Mexican erebennus...and I just assumed they had melanurus influence. They looked very similar to this snake...