Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know of amel, hypo, and axanthic. I've also seen a few striped (sorta striped) but don't think they were reccesive.

what about melanistic? I know a few herpers firmly believe MBKs are nothing but a melanistic population of splendida and others say "no way". Lets assume thats true, if a melanistic desert king popped up in say south TX would it be a MBK or would it be a melanistic desert king and how would you tell the difference?

also, when morphs are found, how do you prove it was a wild produced animal and not a pet that got loose/ was released? besides the obvious "if it's found in your backyard, it's probably an escaped pet and if it's found in the middle of nowhere it's probably a legit wild snake"

How about the black-headed python morph? Check out the thread below from Rosspadilla. That is one super-looking animal!

Yeah, that thing is amazing. Its very dark head really stands out with the pattern it has.
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I don't know how you can prove it was not captive bred other than knowing that population of kings very well and knowing its pattern type came from somewhere else, like a striped Cal king found well outside its range. With desert kings, I wouldn't have a clue.

I've heard there are two types of axanthic desert kings, visually at least. Some are born with white and others with a bluish white waxy color.

There's also a very light hypo type desert king in some zoo that may be a T positive albino. It looks very light brown unlike the typical hypo desert kings. There's actually a story behind that morph that is hard to remember. I think someone found one in Texas.
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I started this thread because I just picked up what appears to be a melanistic splendida. It was collected in TX, so not in the range of MBK and it was found in a rural area on a small farm so the chances of being an escaped pet are very slim. I also spent over a year talking with the person who caught it looking for a flaw in the story or anything to make it seem like the person was pulling a fast one. I'm 100% convinced it is a legit animal and the person was being honest.

So now my plan it to collect more from the area to keep it locale specific and hopefully prove it recessive. I'm also going to get a couple morphs to mix with. Sadly, the animal is a female so it will all take a while.

Nice, congrats and post a pic please.

I'll get a pic up soon. It doesnt appear as though KS lets you upload pics and all of the photo sites are blocked at work.

If anyone wants a pic right now, just email me.

That's very interesting! I remember a post here a while back about someone claiming to find a solid black king in Texas, maybe the same person? If it proved to be recessive, that would be incredible. You'll have a good idea before then by raising the babies up and seeing that they don't get darker at all.
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yeah, i'm hoping for recessive... would be so awesome. I'll breed 2 generations and a male offspring back to the female so all bases are covered and see what happens.

I figure worse case scenario i've been had by a very good amature con-artist, slightly over paid for a MBK, and i'll make a bunch of desert kings, or mexican black kings, or dark desert kings, or desert kingXMBK hybrids... depends on what you believe regarding the 2 ssp, i guess.

best case scenario, i'll be all over mixing it with over morphs and having a locality morph.

Take belly pics, that may be more telling then anyother area, with the exception of head shots. Thanks

I will and will get them posted soon.

It is completely black though. When i picked it up I looked it over checking for problems and didn't see even a spec of white or yellow. just all black.

though it was outside in the midday sun and the snake is shiny, so i could have missed something.

My really good friend and herping partner, oh and cactus and meteor partner, has, albinos, ghosts, axanthics, and maybe more. Most were from another long time friend, Don Shores.

About black kings, everywhere black kings are found, so are splendida. They appear to have the same relationship as Cal kings in SoCal, wetter areas include a black morph or striped in the case of Cal Kings. Dryer areas, normal splendida or again with cal kings, bandeds. This also occurs with other kings as well, like mearnsi in Fla. Also L.nitida and L.conjuncta in Baja

Lower wetter habitats tend to support a darker snake or unicolored animals, dryer open habitats support blotched or banded, in getula.
You can call them what you want. But its silly considering getula is a very polymorphic snake. Its kinda like saying a rainbow is blue. Wait, no its red, No, its a rainbow.

Morphs tend to be found in urban areas and for simple reason, that's where people are. ALso, its disturbed habitat and morphs do not have to put up with silly natural selection pressures. Therefore they are free to extend their phenotypic appearance.

About recently collected morphs, Almost all come from one animal. Therefore are unique and normally have something telling about them. New individuals that are wild caught, generally are different even if the same morph and in most cases with recessive traits, are not compatible. So they have to be proved out. Of course, new to a species morphs is one thing, of value. But Another albino gopher or king, is nothing to get excited about unless its totally different.
I get out some and do see morphs fairly commonly and hybrids. Two years ago, I saw axanthics of four species in one year, seen albinos, etc etc etc. All manner of goofy stuff. Not sure why its more common now, again it could be survival mode for these snakes. We are in a HUGE drought, 18 years and continuing. About 4 years ago, I found albino, striped and some morph I never heard of gophersnakes, all in one year, now they are gone. The population has dropped to less then 10% of what we had. 90% die off. And yes, I documented it, including dying animals. full adults dying left and right. Whether its the drought, or some other reason, its happening. This has been reported all over the world recently. My area has been hit hard.

Well we ddidn't have any droughts in Jawaw, but I noticed a big drop in middle GA from kingssnakes. Ever since I moved here in '92 the pops have gone way down. I sued to find eastern kings everywhere. zNo they are a rarity. But what has gone up in populations (especially at the tree lines) are the fire ants.

and I am sure they (the ants) are the culprit. Probably destroying the snake eggs and also choosing the same places as the kings along tree lines as their favorite haunts. Also we have way more copperheads now. Maybe it is because they are live bearing and the ants can't get at their eggs and they don't hang out at tree lines.
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FR quote:
"Doing the same things over and over expecting to learn something else, is the definition of insanity"