Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Aaron got the ball rolling by posting pics of his old wild-caught male. Here are some current pics of ruthveni from my group. Obviously, the younger ones tend to be more brightly marked. As adults, and especially in females, there is a tendency for gray pigment to develop in the light body bands--most extreme in the last pic of this series.

First up is an 04 female:

An 03 male, also quite vividly marked:

This male, and the female below, are quite large, roughly 3.5 ft in length.

Here's another shot of the male, same pose, taken from a slightly different angle, to give some of the flavor of the boulder-strewn landscape they inhabit (but obviously this boulder is not in Mexico!):

Last pic, of big adult female, with extensive gray pigment:

Enjoy!

Bob

Great Ruthveni pics Bob, you've definately got it down how to take excellent snake photos. I like the backgrounds also.

Do you use Adobe photoshop at all to make the pictures better with more detail?
I'm learning how to use photoshop right now and all it's functions for my work photos in real estate.

Are your pictures under natural light with no flash?
Again fantastic photos.
Happy Herping,
Uncloudy

The ruthveni reminds me alot of my Jalisco milk.

Glad you liked the pics. It was fun assembling this little series. All shots were taken using flash w/diffuser--for the most part this gives a nice, even light with minimal glare or shiny spots. I use Photoshop to crop, unsharp mask, adjust brightness, and balance colors; generally, my camera tends to oversaturate reds/oranges so I reduce the saturation level to accurately reflect what the snake really looks like.

Your Jalisco is a really fine specimen--if you don't mind my asking, who produced it? Juvenile arcifera and ruthveni can look remarkably alike--amazingly so, really--and their ranges closely approach in the Jalisco/Michoacan border region. However, they occupy different habitats and differ in behavior.

Cheers,

Bob

Bob,
It still takes alot of talent, patience, knowlegde of equiment and tinkering to get those good magazine quality photos of your thayeri and ruthveni. Many others in this forum do a superb job photographing their snakes.
I tried calling my friend in the Arizona Herpetological Association who I got the Jalisco from and couldn't get through tonight. Once I get ahold of him, I will know who produced this '04 male. My AHA friend, who I trade with, now has my thayeri, I'm hoping he'll breed them. Jalisco's are rare these days I've been trying to find a female for my male and both arcifera and mexicanas can't be imported anymore. I love the brilliant colors the Jalisco hold without any ontogentic?sp changes and it's so true what you said about their differing behavior. It's the only milksnake I have in a collection of almost all kings and the Jalisco definately has that 'milk' behavior. I know if I was in Mexico and found a young juvenile ruthveni or arcifera, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference for sure without a good map and knowing those ranges.
Happy Herping
Uncloudy

Are you sure that last one doesn't have some webbi in it?

Yeah...kind of looks that way, doesn't it? Take away the heads, and the body patterns are very similar.