hog intergrade

[reverendsterlin]

I got this little girl on a 15 minute herp search. she is one of the naturally occuring intergrades found here Heterodon nasicus kennerlyi X nasicus
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/272pict0003-med.jpg
the kennerlyi has a darker facial stripe that includes the eye, the nasicus has lighter color with the light stripe crossing the eye. these have dark facial stripe and with the light stripe crossing the eye.

[Tim and Julie B]

Wow that is a really cool little snake. what a weird little round head. Very funny looking. 15 min? I wish there was that many herps around here.

[Melly18]

That snake looks awesome :)

[Matt]

naturally occuring integrades are always an interesting find!
congrats!

[reverendsterlin]

lol Tim&Julie, usually it isn't quite that easy, and thanks Matt & Melly. This weekend I'm going out after Crotalus lepidus klauberi (banded rock rattler), and looking for the only know population east of the Continental Divide of Lampropeltis p. pyromelana which is a bit unusual, this snake has nine lower labial scales, these counts are inconsistent with what you would expect with L. p. pyromelana which generally has ten lower labial scales on each side, and this snake usually has all of its white bands complete on the ventral surface which is a characteristic usually only associated with the Utah mountain kingsnake, L. p. infralabialis, which is the subspecies they are located the farthest from. Consideration is ongoing whether they will get their own sub-species I'm hoping that I can collect females of both types that have already been bred.