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Anyone know if this is available on line anywhere? I have heard that in this paper there is information on the Tenessee valley population of melanoleucus including data from KY specimens. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Phil

phil-
the article appeared in the journal of herpetology vol 29 #2 pp#186-198. i don't know if it appears online, you might want to check the ssar site (publishers of joh)to see if you can get the article or if you're near a university library read it first hand. also check with local herpers that may subscribe to joh or collect older volumes.
dave b

Thanks for the info Dave. I'll see if I can track it down from there.
BTW, that is one beautiful northern. Any idea what locality?
Thanks again, Phil

the best i can do for locality data is "petshop in rochester ny". the owner said "new jersey" but there is no currency to back it up.
this pic was taken just after a shed this past summer. i will pair this young man up with a nice female from howie sherman's colony this coming spring.
dave b

Dave...you are killing me with those pics!!!!! AUGH!!! That northern is definetely one of the best I have ever seen!!!! I love that black head!

Keep us posted with that snake and the breeding you may be doing with the Sherman female.

Take care!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1

will do. should be interesting, my first time breeding northern pines.
dave b

Where ever its from, it is one fine looking pine snake. Very high contrast, and I like all the black on the head.
Thanks once again.

Phil, if you can't find an online source you might want to try dropping an email to Terry Vandeventer at Arco Iris. He and Reichling collaborated on some of the P. ruthveni research back in the '80s, and he provided some animals the 1995 study you're interested in. He might be able to put you in touch with Steve or relay your request to him.

As an fyi, the study doesn't have a lot of specific info on the disjunct w Tenn/sw Ky P. melanoleucus population. What Reichling was trying to do was prove P. ruthveni deserved to be classified as a separate species according to the evolutionary species concept. He compared/contrasted physical characteristics (scale counts, rostral scale size, etc) of various Pituophis subspecies to P. ruthveni, as well as physical differences between typical P. Melanoleucus specimens and those from the disjunct population in W Tenn/SW Ky. AND comparisons between these two and P. ruthveni. There were some interesting differences between the disjunct P melanoleucus population and other P melanoleucus, one being a higher dorsal blotch count. If I recall correctly, the W Tenn/SW KY animals studied were mostly preserved specimens in collections at Austin Peay and Murray State.

Hope that helps.

Thanks kb. It seems information on that population of pines is scarce so we are always in pursuit of anything out there. The sort of info I was most interested in was scale counts, blotch counts and coloration so that might be helpful. Here is a pic of a pine snake we found in western KY in 2003. Thanks for all your help!
Phil