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Which species of ratsnake is this?

Lupine

Lupine

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After doing more reading, I'm wondering if I've mis-identified my little friend. I cannot find good info on differentiating between the Southern Plains Rat Snake and Black Rat Snake (hatchling). Most of its belly scales are black. The inside of its mouth is a grayish-lavender and its tongue is black. It wont be still enough for me to count scales or blotches. Here is a pic from my phone. Anyone know what species it is?
 

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Here is a page showing a pic of Texas rat snake....

http://www.bugsinthenews.com/Texas Snake Web/juvenile_texas_rat_snake_Oct03_Frisco.htm

You can do a Google image search and find plenty of pics of juvenile Texas rat snakes. Their head shape and pattern are different than black rat snakes. My Texas rats and black rats have VERY different head shapes....yours looks more Texas to me. Or at least more like my Texas rat snakes than my black rat snakes...but they are variable. And their natural ranges do cross in certain areas producing intergrades/hybrids. Here's a couple of pics of baby black rat snakes for comparison.

peal_baby2.jpg

peal_eye.jpg


And here are some Texans...

texas.jpg

texas_bite2.jpg


As you can see from the range map below if it was wild caught in Oklahoma it's most likely an intergrade of the two types....but it does have very strong Texas (aka western rat snake) influence imho.

obsoletus_distribution1.jpg
 
MoonGlow- I actually did a google image search and found lots of poor photos and conflicting information from a variety of what I call unreliable sources, including the "bugsinthenews" site, which is why I posted here.
The most obvious thing I note from your pictures is the Black seems to have whiter "irises" than the Texas, but I have no way of knowing if that's a defining characteristic. I wish I had a good herp field manual with me. But I guess it's just not that important. I was thinking of maybe keeping him if he was a Black, but I released him anyway.
Thanks to all for your help.
 
Lupine said:
MoonGlow- I actually did a google image search and found lots of poor photos and conflicting information from a variety of what I call unreliable sources, including the "bugsinthenews" site, which is why I posted here.
The most obvious thing I note from your pictures is the Black seems to have whiter "irises" than the Texas, but I have no way of knowing if that's a defining characteristic. I wish I had a good herp field manual with me. But I guess it's just not that important. I was thinking of maybe keeping him if he was a Black, but I released him anyway.
Thanks to all for your help.
Click to expand...
Sorry I couldn't be more help. The link was for the photo...not the information. I didn't even read what that site said.
To determine what kind of rat snake it is just look the range map. Did it come from the area black rat snakes are found or the intergrades? Fact is all American rat snakes look pretty similar as babies...and since Oklahoma has large areas of intergrades you just have to go by the range maps. But by the busy/jagged pattern, wide eye stripe, head pattern, and head shape it's most likely an intergrade. Honestly, my pure baby black rat snakes look nothing like yours. But again, they are extremely variable and that's why you should just go by the range maps...because those maps can tell you more than mine or anyone else opinion can.
 
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