at this time subspecies are not in vogue with SN, so that is not to be considered. hahahahahahaha



So you like me are living in the past. Which at times is preferable to the present in certain cases.



The actual point is, you can call them morphs, phases, polymorphic, whatever. They are exactly what they are. Particularly in nature.



The reality is, each local has its own unique set of morphs and phases, and these do change as time and locality change. This includes all mexicana.



All tend to have a alterna pattern and a blairs pattern, this includes greeri, mexicana, ruthveni, thayeri, pyro, etc.



Take pyro, in southern az and northern sonora, we have high band count "knob" color patterns, and low band count "woodeni" patterns in ALL the southern mountain ranges. The band counts range from 24 to 80's, hmmmmmmmmm huge range.



I have seen these knob types in the Animas to the east, all the way to the Quinnlands to the west. And in many of the mexican mountain ranges. As they go south, that Knob pattern becomes more prevalent.



This goes for mexicana as well, The alterna types are more common in northern mex, then they merge to thayeri and mex mex.



Even Ruthvens have high band count "greeri" types, and low band count "blairi" types. Again yes, I have seen them all in the field. I have some funny field stories about these as well.



Again I was amoung the VERY first with this animal, both in captivity and in the field, I found the fifth thru the 32nd of these(in two days) I could say i had the first captive breeding, but I only sorta did. L.A. Zoo bred them but called them, L.t.arciferia. As they came in before they were named, so they called them the nearest thing to them. But they were ruthvens. At the same time, Dallas zoo was producing real L.t.arciferia.



Again, it really does not matter to the animal what we call them and it does not matter what we call them in nature, as they ARE EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE. No matter how many times we change the names. In nature, they are what they are. What we call them is mostly prejudiced bullbeans. Current, popular, to solve an arguement between people, is all meaningless to the animals.



So it becomes about us. We are english, so we should use what works the best at time. Its about utility(of use) at this time SN is in a little rut. Cheers

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