Roger, I have captured or seen WC specks from Lake Charles, LA, Baton Rouge, LA, the Greater New Orleans area of LA (St. Bernard, Jefferson, and Orleans Parishes), Slidell, LA, and Picayune, MS. All showed varying degrees of crossbanding, but I recall the ones from the more northerly areas like Slidell, LA and Picayune, MS showing the most. The more southerly ones south of Lake Ponchartrain in the Greater N.O. area westward to Lake Charles appear to be more evenly speckled. One large male I do recall that I captured here in Baton Rouge, LA even had a fluorescent type green tinge at times on this specks that was very pretty. If not mistaken the Liberty Co. area of Texas and surrounding areas are all near Houston, TX, which is east to southeast TX close to the western border of LA. These apparently show a high degree of uniform speckling with little to no crossbarring. I would assume the further west along the range you go you start getting spendida influence and more crossbanding. Conversely, the further northeast and east you go in their range I am sure nigra and possibly getula/floridana influence creeps in and may result in less speckling in general from nigra, or maybe more crossbanding from the getula/floridana animals??

[ Show Entire Thread ]