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View Full Version : How do you discern the difference between subspecies of Ringneck snakes?


Praireboyfarmer
04-29-15, 06:12 PM
I've caught a few ring neck snakes (I'm not keeping them as pets, simply identifying them, taking photographs and then releasing them where I found them.) and it's obviously a ring neck snake but I'm not sure which subspecies it is. So how do you discern the difference between them?

I found it in Central Oklahoma.

Derek1
04-29-15, 10:23 PM
Location is about the only way. Would love to see the pics

MDT
04-29-15, 10:36 PM
way back when....when a zoology undergrad at Oklahoma State University, i did a research paper on the genus Diadophis. I did scale counts on about 500 preserved ringneck snakes. Diadophis is an extremely cumbersome genera, and there will likely be some moving around of species/subspecies based on much more accurate classification (mitochondrial DNA, PCR, etc) than a zoology junior sitting in the basement of Life Sciences West counting scales....

All that said, you probably have prairie ringneck snakes...