Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
It's been a long time since I last posted but every once in a while I still read up on what's going on. I had a chance to read part of Schultz's Monograph of the Coulbrid Snake of the Genus Elaphe and saw that Elaphe taeniura ssp. are also named Thai Striped-taied Ratsnake. In the reptile store that I buy food, they name the ssp. Vietnamese Beauty Snakes. From the book's descriptions, these snakes are mostly found in Thailand and Burma. So would the term Vietnamese Beauty Snakes be correct? Thank you anyone for helping me out.

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Belle

Blue beauty (Elaphe taeniura ssp.)
Taiwan beauty (Elaphe taeniura friesi)
Cave beauty (Elaphe taeniura ridleyi)

Schulz's map does place it far from Vietnam. And on his website (see link below) he has a picture of a blue beauty with the caption stating origin unknown.

So without e-mailing him (to which he usually seems to reply) I'll guess that either
1) The range is larger than shown and extends east to N. Vietnam
2) The locale description as Vietnamese is erroneous or
3) There is another pocket of a similar looking ssp in Vietnam, isolated from the ssp shown on Schulz's map.

I'll take a guess and say it's door #2. But watch, someone will prove me wrong.
Best regards
John

NT
http://www.bushmaster.de/HTML/taeniura.htm

I thought ssp. was just an abbreviation meaning sub species unknown or not yet discribed??
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Lloyd Heilbrunn

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

Lloyd:
There's a nice photo of a Blue Beauty in Schulz's Monograph and he indicates that it is an unnamed subspecies but does not include Vietnam in its range. I thought the original question is whether the ssp. is only from western Thailand and Burma as indicated by Schulz or also from Vietnam as commonly described in sales descriptions of Vietnamese Blue Beauties.
John

To my knowledge, all the wild-caught blue beauties that have been shipped to the U.S. have been shipped from Vietnam. However I was told at one time by a Vietnam exporter that the origin of the imported snakes was actually Burma.
FWIW.
-DT

Thank you everyone for the help. Since DT said that most of the exports are from Vietnam, I guess I can understand why the sellers may name the Blue Beauty snakes Vietnamese Blue Beauty eventhough the actual origins are from Burma. Along the lines of what John said, these snakes are not fully categorized yet which probably does not rule out the possiblity that they could also be in Vietnam. Even the name Blue Beauty may not suite the specimen since not all Elaphe taeniura ssp. are blue. I guess personally I would just call mine a Blue Beauty. Thanks again for the help.

Here's my Elaphe taeniura ssp./ Blue Beauty/ Vienamese Beauty snake
(I'm sure eveyone is getting tired of this picture by now, I'll take a more recent one soon)

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Belle

Blue beauty (Elaphe taeniura ssp.)
Taiwan beauty (Elaphe taeniura friesi)
Cave beauty (Elaphe taeniura ridleyi)