Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seen a few ads for these but have no idea what they are.

Thanks,
Miller
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1.1 Florida King
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.0 Chow Chow
0.2 Cats

And it's a wide banded S. GA. Kingsnake all in one!!! (This is a pic of my yearling S. Ga. king female)
But honestly, the mostly black belly is unique among these snakes. As far as the ad is concerned, I have no idea exactly what it is either. . .

I'm an expert on everything, but know so little and have so much to learn - Carsten Zoldy -

Zee

Here's a pic of the male (also a S. Ga. Eastern King).

Zee

>>Here's a pic of the male (also a S. Ga. Eastern King).
>>
>>Zee
>>
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I have no idea what a blackbelly kingsnake is, I do know it's not a species. Although it could be a morph or pattern trait because I do have an abberant California Kingsnake with a solid black belly, then the rest of the body is abberantly patterned black and white.
Happy Herping,
Uncloudy

yeah from the pic in that add i would say those are l.g.nitida, which is a nat.intergrade of l.g.nigritus and l.g.cali.,,,,nitida are great very underratted getula they are kinda like the "nigra" of the west,,, great snakes that are underapprecieated IMHO,,,,,,,thomas davis

They are referred to as "black bellies", but are actually brown bellies. They are 100% pure California Kingsnake. It is a simple recessive gene (melanistic). I have a pair from Rick Staub that are from Davis, CA and I also have a trio from Mendota, CA.

Those pictured in the ad appear to be either from Mendota or Davis; the pics in the ad are of poor quality.

Kerby...

Thanks, Kerby!!!
I was wondering myself, but only glanced at the ad and honestly am not really into patternless snakes unless it's an Indigo, LOL!

Zee

N/P
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1.1 Florida King
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.0 Chow Chow
0.2 Cats

A little bit east of Davis. I beat my brains out in Davis during the mid 90's looking for the these guys and have caught two, both in 1994. About 75 snakes later betwen '95 and 2000, nary another blackbelly to be found. It is a very fickle area to hunt and while everybody else caught kings road-hunting, I always walked and flipped mine. The person who knew the most about this snake was a retired biologist named George Hansen who died of a heart attack circa 2000. The only other people who have ever caught this form are Rick Staub, Gerold Merker, and Brian Hubbs. The attached photo is of a male I collected as a hatchling in May of 1994. He is most likely the only living wild-caught Blackbelly in captivity today.

The "blackbelly gene", I believe, is actually two co-dominant genes. One for the patterning: Only males are striped. The other for the hypermelanism, that doesn't appear to be a simple recessive gene. I would breed my male blackbelly to a wild-caught female from the same area and get half a litter of blackbellies, half a litter of normals. The next year, I might get 80% blackbellies from the same pair. I still never figured it out. I wish some UCD student would do a project on this and figure out what the story really is with these guys.

When I breed Mendota x Mendota, I get all Mendotas.

In 2003 I bred:
Mendota x Mendota = all Mendotas
Mendota x Chocolate Banded = all Chocolate Banded
Mendota x 50-50 = all 50-50
Mendota x Albino High White = all butt ugly, LOL

In 2006 I will breed my Davis to my Mendota, and I bet they are the same gene.

Kerby...

The Davis Blackbelly seems to be exclusively associated with canals and waterways in the Central Valley. I have a theory about that and it could be that the Friant/ Firebaugh/ Mendota blackbellies are the same animal. The bigger puzzle to me: Why has nobody caught a Blackbelly north of Sacramento. I suspect they're in Yuba County but perhaps nobody hunts there? Please let me know how that project goes.

And I appreciate all the info you've provided. Although I have herped all over the place (my dad was in the U.S. Army and I was in the U.S. Army) I have never herped in California. I live in Arizona and all our cal kings are pretty much banded. The only interesting ones are in Southern Arizona where there are natural intregrades between Cal Kings, Desert Kings, and Black Mexican Kings.

I need to get over there this Feb.

Mayby Hubbs could draw me a map LOL

Kerby...