Cane field king

[crimsonking]

I have some babies from a wild collected king found in the 'cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee FL. This particular snake is slightly different than most in that it has less bands and speckling. When cleaning his cage today I snapped a quick pic. Sorry for the lighting.
:Markhttp://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/151canefield1a.JPG

[Tim_Cranwill]

Cool. What's the latin name?

[crimsonking]

Tim, they're floridana (to me), but they'd most likely fall into the "peninsula intergrade" category and be L. getula x floridana.
:Mark

[MouseKilla]

I can really see the Eastern (getula getula) influence. The difference being of course the bands aren't in the chain pattern on the pictured animal. Beautiful animal. Do you know if they get as large as the Easterns? I don't know about the size of floridana at all so I'm curious if they are both relatively large animals that are integraded...

[crimsonking]

There are some animals from the Pinellas co area that are very black and their pattern is much like an eastern. This one is actually very much like them. I'll post a pic of another different looking animal (from the same area as this one) here as soon as I get a pic. Some are quite large, especially the Pinellas ones.
:Mark

[MouseKilla]

That pic reminded me of this guy. He is very hard to photograph but you can kinda see here how the bands link up on the sides giving it that chain look.

[Vanan]

Nice Mark! Never told me you've got a true locality intergrade. :p And yea that is interesting on how much of a chain influence it seems to have.

[crimsonking]

Vanan, a friend has 2.4 adults he collected from around the Palm Bch. county area fields. I just wanted to get a few representative examples from him. Between us we have some from many different areas of the state. We are going to breed one of my lighter Tampa males with a nice female from this locale to see what "pops up". Breeding some of the different locales together is how my "mahogany" phase came about.
:Mark

[Vanan]

Aah now I see. Which is your fav locale of them intergrades and why?

[crimsonking]

Vanan, I'm not really sure which would be my favorite. You know, you always hold fond the snakes you remember from your childhood. I remember the shiny dark black snakes with light crossbands like this Pinellas co. snake. (this guy is near 6') The ones just across Tampa Bay and to the east are much more "peppered" and more golden brown. This is also the place of origin of many of the brightest yellow snakes too. "Dream kings", "sulphur kings" etc. huge variety. Of course west central FL. is home to other snakes like wild anery and charcoal corns too. But as Katt has said before,"my favorite is the one I'm holding". I'll put together some recent pics to show more variety. Stay tuned! ha!
:Mark

[Vanan]

You making me wait now?! :p

[MouseKilla]

I can't tell from that pic whether the bands on link up or not (looks like they do...?) That one looks even more like an Eastern than the first one did except I notice there is more of a brown to it than the almost purple on the Easterns... may just be that pic or that snake though, not sure... it looks like there is some white speckling in the dark areas too, particularily up toward the head.

[crimsonking]

yeah, if you weren't up on 'em, you'd say it's an eastern for sure. The bands on some link up like you said and the sides are usually boldly patterned. I have a snake from a breeding of a female like him with a more "floridana" looking male from Tampa. He came out as expected, with dark dorsum and light crossbars, but with a lot of lateral speckling as he's aging. I'll post him below.
:Mark

[Katt]

NICE photos.

Mark, you are a herp god. Please let us live with you. We will leave beautiful cold Canada, to spend the rest of our lives with you in Tampa.

[Vanan]

Oh damn! I just got a good look of the pics on this post on Katt's pc (my monitor's screwy :p) and DANG those are some sweet snakes!! Mousekilla, that eastern is a screamer!! Love how white the bands are and his dark background!

Mark, you gotta tell me more about your locale FLXChains! All this time and I never knew?? Besides them intergrades are growing on me! LOVE my mahogs!!

[crimsonking]

Well Katt, I don't think so! I just love the local kings. Tell ya what. Instead of taking up a bunch of space here ( I'm getting some better pics, I promise ) please visit www.crimsonking.funtigo.com to see some more on the kingsnake page. The one constricting the mouse is the mother of the one next to her. He's a "Tampa Bay" --(my name for Pinellas x Tampa snakes :). The one just below them is a Pinellas king also. Vanan, I think there's a lot of potential with the mahogany line. Maybe introduce the hypo gene in there?
:Mark

[Vanan]

Vanan, I think there's a lot of potential with the mahogany line. Maybe introduce the hypo gene in there?

Woah!!! Never even thought about that! Know where I can get some sweet hypos? ;)

[crimsonking]

here's one from my (Tampa) side of Tampa Bay. Much different and less "chain king like".
:Markhttp://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/151Tampa_king1a.JPG

[MouseKilla]

Wow, very yellow! The bands are barely visible (maybe I'm imagining them?). Very cool.

[Vanan]

Starting to love how thick these fellas get! You should see how that female mahog (big baby) looks like now! Yea yea. Enough talk right? I should just get off my a** and take pics!