Comparison shot

[Kerwin Ross]

Since my provider (Cableone) is having web provider problems (3 weeks now) I am now trying to post pics directly from my hard drive, so....

Kerby...

[Rich G.]

shots Kerby. It's cool how you can find them within feet of each other yet in different microhabitats there in Yavapai Co. Several times I have had someone with me and found a bilineatus on the road when we were running through a stretch of mesquite grassland. Then just around the bend the terrain changes to manzanita /barberry and there is a taeniatus in the road. I usually can't convince whoever that we just saw two different snakes,lol. Glad you guys found some stuff!

[Kerwin Ross]

Rich, you are right about them occuring close to each other. Has an intergrade ever been found? Or is it either just one or the other?

Mondays huh?

:)

Kerby...

[regalringneck]

Kerby, nice comparison shot, pity tho you didnt get as much of the sonoran in the photo.
Ive found the stripers are higher than the sonorans where they occur together, & have fd them both sympatric w/ coachwhips. Ive never seen all 3 occuring in the same area, nor when in Cal. the 2 stripers living sympatrically.
Ive occasionally pondered how patchnoses & the various stripers could eek out a niche in flagellum habitat???
Another oddity is I occasionally find sonorans deep in the desert such as S. mtn or over in the Maricopas where flagellum are by far the most numerous of the tribe.

Saludos, jg

[Kerwin Ross]

Here ya go John, a little more "skin" for LOL

Kerby...

[Kerwin Ross]

are from last year..

Kerby...

[regalringneck]

Thnx Kerby,

How far into NW Az have you/Rich & others fd. sonorans?
I have fd. them around Bumblebee to Cleator. Up towards the verde-valley & above 4500' all have been taeniatus, tho Ive fd. them much lower NW of Kingman in the Black Mtns. Ive fd taeniatus S. as far as the Harquahalas in W. Az. What spps are the whipsnakes around Bagdad?
I still think a jet black lateralis is the nicest of the striped group.

[Kerwin Ross]

John, I've found them all around the Prescott, Dewey, Chino Valley area.

Here is one from a few years ago. He thought I couldn't see him in the tree and I was able to put my face within inches of him LOL

South of Mayer we have found both, but I wasn't paying much attention to the elevation.

Kerby...

[Rich G.]

Hey John,

about the farthest north I can recall finding bilineatus is around the Cordes Jct. area and on the road between Yava and Bagdad at various points. In the Verde and anywhere north they have all been taeniatus. In the Cordes area I have found both literally within a few yards of each other but occupying different niches. The taeniatus would be in the Manzanita and Red Barberry/Scrub Oak chapperal, the bilineatus in the riparian corridors and the patches of desert grassland. I never really thought about it but I haven't ever seen bilineatus and flagellum in the same niche but I have often seen taeniatus and flagellum together in the Sedona and Cottonwood areas. I don't know of any hybrids between Masticophis species either. I have had my upper lip shredded by all three species. :-)

[JJFeldner]

you gotta stop trying to kiss Nastycophis!! LOL.

[Rich G.]

with those big eyes and all.....:-)