I was responding to another person concerned that my purplish eastern Sanzina was in fact a western (thread below) when it hit me: How would anyone know that this animal “looks” like a western. Westerns and easterns are indistinguishable except that some easterns are green or greenish. I’m getting the impression that people think all easterns are green and all non-green animals are westerns. This is incorrect. All green Sanzina are probably easterns, but not all non-green Sanzina are westerns. Eastern Sanzina can be green, brown or gray, usually (but not always) with greenish tones. Westerns appear to never have greenish tones.

Get a copy of Vences and Glaw’s 2003 paper that splits the animal into two sub-species and check it out for yourself. (Dr Vence’s thoughtfully provides a PDF’s at his website.) If someone has new information available that indicates how to tell westerns from easterns by just looking at them, I’d love to see it.

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