Not singling you out but you provided a good point on which to expand the discussion.
The problem with people and reptiles is that we have a history of animals in the wild mixing genes which in a number of cases were once listed as their own species and in a number of cases form "zones of intergradation" in the wild. The thing many people forget is that the intergrade breedings in the wild are often different than those that occur in captivity. Breeding a New Jersey getulus and a goini may when one looks at the names on paper appear to be the same as the southern most getulus breeding with a goini but in reality there are significant genetic differences. So these crosses should not be viewed as being the same as those that occur in the wild. As some versions of these intergrades occur naturally in the wild, there is a position by some people that these are not "hybrids" however if we look to other systems of accepted nomenclature there is a good bit of evidence that they should be considered hybrids.
There are recognized nomenclature systems that deal this issue and have standards which could be adopted and used. For example; in plant cultivation these crosses are listed by cross (for example goini x getulus). In the older plant literature, the crosses were listed by sex (pollen donor to receiver) but this convention is no longer required. However it should be noted that under plant cultivation the above cross would be considered a hybrid.
When one looks into domestic animal breeding, there is also a couple of applicable conventions that can be accepted and used. Crosses between localities that are not considered separate subspecies (this is the grey band example provided by a different poster above) would be considered to be crossbreeds and not intergrades or hybrids. In domestic animals this is signified by listing the two breeds with a cross in the middle (although dog breeders coin new names by combining them (ex labradoodle versus goldendoodle). Normally the male is listed first. (there is actually a decent explanation here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbreed) however it should be noted that crosses between different subspecies under these conventions are also considered to be hybrids.
So to shorten it up.. crosses between species and/or subspecies are hybrids (under the above rules), crosses within a subspecies (or a species with no subspecies) are considered crossbreds (but not hybrids). As a result care should be taken when listing a snake as an intergrade as unless the parental stock actually came from the intergradation zone, the genes will be different and not a true intergrade hence the designation of hybrid...
I missed the posts on kingsnake so I'm guessing that they were deleted but based on the above conventions, it appears that kingsnake did have the correct position on the crosses.
Ed
Ed Kowalski
