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I've inherited a couple of kings from my daughter-in-law since she lost interest when they got bigger and still like to bite!
They were sold to her as brooksi but they look alot like florida kings to me. Is there some determining factor to tell the difference?

Cheryl

Honestly, the brooksi are now considred a phase of the FL king, instead of a seperate subspecies. So there is no difference other than phenotypical appearance usually characterized by a lighter more pale coloration in the brooksi phase.

so it is a fase or a color morph? is it like a mood fase girls go through or is it a mutation? i have no idea what fase means.

I guess you could call it a color morph of sorts. A phase is a pattern or color type that can either be typical or atypical. For example, take the eastern hognose snake. They can be black(melanistic phase), red or orange(sometimes called calico phase), yellow phase, or just earthy tones of tan and brown. I don't think these are considered different morphs, but if you want to call them that go ahead.

Actually the difference is in more than just color. Though the status of the Brooks has changed, there are differnces between it and what is called a Florida King. The problem has a great deal to do with the canal system that opened the Brook's dwindling range to snakes that are IMO intergrades. In recent years the Brook's king has become established as the same thing as a Florida king. The thing is that there is a wide zone of integration between them and the Northern chain. This intergradiation is now practically complete in wild populations except for the remaing Brooks that are in extreme south Dade and Monroe counties.

I should point out I have lived in S. Florida since 1957 and actively collected kings in the field till 1985.

Brooks/S. Florida kings (besides yellow color) are distinct in that usually the head is blunter than a "Florida intergrade". Early descriptions mentioned the lack of a Loreal scale (found between the eye and nose). Also Brooks are charactorised by the large amount of dark banding (over 78. I have seen some with over 100)which aids in the illusion of patternlessness in the best examples.

There is also a Black/white phase found near Turkey Point which are the ancestors of the popular color phase.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I think they were labeled correctly as brooksi. Would you take a look at the pics and give your opinion?

I'm in SE Florida too, Broward County but I've never done any field collecting. Too many things out there that I might find that I wouldn't feel comfortable with!

Cheryl Bald

I was really going around in circles with that! I'd see some called brooksi and then some called Florida kings and to make it really interesting I found a site that had a a cross between the two! I'm planning to breed them this coming season and wanted to make sure I had the offspring labeled correctly.

Cheryl

we love fla kings and wondering what u got.Chris

But I just got some new het albino Ball Pythons and need pics of my keeper corn snake hatchlings from this year too so I need to have a picture day very soon! I'll try to get that done and post pics of them.

Cheryl Bald

These two are real feisty! If you should see any blood in the pics, don't worry, it's mine! They're both supposed to be het for albino(amel).

Here's the male

She's a bit lighter