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Eastern kingsnake morphs

J

jtupper

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One of my favorite snakes would have to be eastern/chain kings. Although they're probably tied with floridana.

I know there are some folks producing a few amels occasionally. But are there any other known morphs?

There's a dude on morph market selling "banana eastern kingsnake" but that's the first I've heard of them. So it got me thinking maybe there are a lot more out there?
 
When I lived in Maryland, I remember finding some gorgeous examples in Calvert county that were a beautiful blue black with yellow banding. They were much prettier than others I found elsewhere. Not sure how widespread the population of them was there, as I usually was on my way to look for coastal plain milks in St. Marys County, so I was just passing through Calvert. And, of course, that was a good 30 years ago.

I heard rumors of exceptionally wide banded eastern kings coming out of Tyrell County, North Carolina, but I was never fortunate enough to find any myself.

I'm guessing either form would be different enough looking to sport their own "cultivar" name if someone worked with them.
 
kings

Ya I wouldnt buy into any banana king stuff yet. There is a T- albino morph floating around but the genes are very weak and not many make it to breeding age. Ive had a T+ eastern but didnt get beyond hets. There are a couple of locales that produce morph type animals, Edisto Island SC and southern GA. These are called MOSAICS, and are the original MOSAICS, before Cal king and Florida king MOSAICS were produced. I dont know anyone currently working with them. Hold on, Jerry Kruse has some.
 
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I believe it was a guy named Bob Fengya who told me about very broad banded eastern kings being found off of Caratoke HWY (route 158) in coastal North Carolina. I kicked around there a little bit, but never was able to find any. Didn't find ANY kings, btw, so I can't confirm that info either way. I honestly didn't look very hard, because every time I was in that area, I was actually on the way to the Outer Banks. I lived in Maryland at the time, btw.

And, of course, I kicked around on Hatteras and Okracoke looking for the chimera (IMHO)L. g. sticticeps. I did find a number of kings on Hatteras, however none of which looked like what sticticeps should look like. The original writeup by Barbour and Engle mentioned a number of characteristics about this animal which I am skeptical about. Besides the fact that that writeup was based on a single animal collected on Okracoke. One of the original characteristics identifying sticticeps was that it would not eat other snakes. I had some examples gotten from other people now and again, and I would dare anyone to throw a corn snake that they really wanted to keep in with any of them. Another identifying feature mentioned was that there were no other snakes to be found on Okracoke, but I certainly found a black racer there. So no, I am just not convinced.

Anyway, sorry about going somewhat off topic. :eek:
 
Ya, Im breeding some NICE Hatteras locales now and have been around stiticeps for decades and never once heard of that old wives tale. NO WAY would I trust that they dont eat other snakes, in my experience with insular snakes they can take extremely long between meals but once they are are ON they will eat anything.
 
I just laid my hands on the original publication I had in my bookcase concerning "Lampropeltis getulus sticticeps". Authors were Thomas Barbour and William L. Engels (not Engel). Title of the publication is "Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club, TWO INTERESTING NEW SNAKES. September 18, 1942. Vol XX, pp. 101-104.


Holotype. --M.C.Z., 46,469, from the Knoll, midway between Okracoke Inlet and Hatteras Inlet, Okracoke Island, North Carolina. Collected by W. L. Engels, 8th of June, 1941.

At first sight this might seem slender evidence for describing a new race, but the evidence that we deal here with a well-marked physiological form is so interesting that this fact alone would warrant its being named. For this snake, unlike all its allies, is not ophiophagous. Kept in captivity for a long time, as it was, it refused every sort of snake offered it for food and fed regularly on mice. Probably it was forced to do this on an island where, as far as is known, other snakes are absent and beach mice swarm. A glance at the figures will show how extraordinarily Pituophis-like if the head of our new form, and Pituophis, of course, is a rodent feeder. Whereas King Snakes normally twine about their prey, this snake has acquired the Coluber-like habit of seizing its prey and then dragging it to some position where it may be pressed to death with the body against some firmly set object. This its feeding habits are those of a Black Snake and not of a King Snake. This fact was confirmed by repeated experiments of the junior author.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this could be considered as an old wives' tale since this was the ORIGINAL description of the single specimen that spawned the name L. g. sticticeps. Perhaps this one specimen was the only one EVER to match that exact description.

The publication also describes a new rat snake they are calling "Elaphe quadrivitatta parallela". I did catch one rat snake on Hatteras Island, but honestly it didn't really catch my eye, so I just released it where I found it. It was a young specimen, and from what I remember it was gray colored, but I was searching for the elusive "sticticeps" and just didn't pay it much attention.

Anyway, FWIW.
 
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