Based on mtDNA data of Rodriguez-Robles et al., the Mountain kingsnakes of southern California in the area now occupied by L. z. pulchra and L. z. parvirubra had been wiped out by some catastrophic event in the past. At that time these snakes probably were indistinguishable from L. z. agalma because this species appears to be quite conservative morphologically and quite close to the ancestral condition, which it shares with L. z. multifasciata. L. z. agalma retreated to the northern Baja California. The same catastrophic event also appeared to have wiped much of southern California clean of Charina bottae.



Subsequently the species recovered from its refuge in the northern Baja California area and expanded northward and then westward. The path appears to be from the area now occupied by L. z. agalma north to San Diego County. From there the migration took 2 divergent routes. One of these was the coastal route, where it apparently ended in Orange County. Zweifel thought that the mountain kings of the Santa Monica Mountains was L. z. pulchra, but mtDNA suggests that the Santa Monica Mountain king is a derivative of a population of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. The San Gabriel Mountain kings in turn are derived from the San Bernardino Mountain kings, which in turn came from the mountains of San Diego County via the Palomar Mountains. Interestingly, Lichanura trivirgata, a close relative of Charina bottae, also originated from northern Baja California and it also expanded northward into San Diego and westward into the San Gabriel Mountains.



Based on this data, it would appear unlikely that either the coastal migration or the transverse mountain migration ended up in the Palos Verdes area. Of course anything is possible. There may well be mountain kings in that area, but based on the migration routes of L. zonata in southern California, as revealed by mtDNA data, the likelihood would seem to be low.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]