>>Most contemporary taxonomists consider elapsoides to be something different than triangulum. In fact I have heard that there is a lot of evidence to show that they are more closely related to zonata. Wouldn't that mean that they are monophyletic?

What? elapsoides being more closely related to zonata than to triangulum? That would post an enormous biogeographical problem since these two species are separated by thousands of miles! Further, there is at least some evidence that elapsoides interbreeds with L. t. triangulum but no evidence that zonata is even in contact with any subspecies of L. t. triangulum, let alone interbreed with any of them.