To determine the purity of your "Black Ratsnake", you first need a 100% monkey proof definition of what a "Black Ratsnake" really is. Burbrink et al may have overanalyzed their data a little bit (well...), but they actually digged up some very interesting stuff. You see, when you read those distribution maps you see all these imaginary dotted lines, dividing the supposed polytypical species into it's doubtfully distinct subspecific entities. In reality however, it's not exactly like the USA is divided by snake proof fences, with Black Ratsnakes on one side and Texas Ratsnakes on the other. In fact, there's lots and lots of geneflow, stretching it's influence over hundreds of miles, having isolation by distance and natural selection as possibly the only mechanisms preventing the species to become one big happy intergrade. So forget about those lines, forget about subspecies, and forget about purity (whatever it means). The only thing that really matters is locality.

No locality data on your snake? Don't worry, be happy.

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