Re: Philodryas Psammophidea
Very nice! That is one of the nicest coloured specimens I've ever seen. They are usauly from what I've seen very brown and grey, or is this just the juvenile colours? Either way racers are such a blast to work with, enjoy :)
Re: Philodryas Psammophidea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jason_ladouceur
Very nice! That is one of the nicest coloured specimens I've ever seen. They are usauly from what I've seen very brown and grey, or is this just the juvenile colours? Either way racers are such a blast to work with, enjoy :)
Jason, from a distance, they look a bit drab. Like everything, things fully reveal themselves with closer inspection ;).
Also, patterns vary slightly by locality and I do belive that in the distant future, many of the philodryas species will be split into more species. These animals come from a Paraguayan locality and have a slightly more pronouonced pattern.
Re: Philodryas Psammophidea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Skiploder
Jason, from a distance, they look a bit drab. Like everything, things fully reveal themselves with closer inspection ;).
Also, patterns vary slightly by locality and I do belive that in the distant future, many of the philodryas species will be split into more species. These animals come from a Paraguayan locality and have a slightly more pronouonced pattern.
Admittedly the number of specimens I've seen in person is only a handful so I'll have to refer to your experience with them. And you might be very right about taxonomy. A good friend of mine keeps a decent sized group of Baroni. He of course has greens, a few blues and more recently acquired some brown specimens. It's truly amazing how much diversity there is just in that species.
Re: Philodryas Psammophidea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jason_ladouceur
Admittedly the number of specimens I've seen in person is only a handful so I'll have to refer to your experience with them. And you might be very right about taxonomy. A good friend of mine keeps a decent sized group of Baroni. He of course has greens, a few blues and more recently acquired some brown specimens. It's truly amazing how much diversity there is just in that species.
The same is true with many other species - there is a noticeable variation is patagoniensis, aestivus, olfersii and viridissimus. I'd compare it to this: there is also noticeable variation in kingsnake and gopher snakes county to county in California - different patterns, coloration, etc. There is even a secret location in the Bay Area of pacific gophers that look like no other pac gophers anywhere else.
The variety is wide enough in psammophidea that I'd compare it as if we were to group all of the gophers into one species - instead of affinis, deserticola, annectans, etc.
Time will tell............
