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color morphs in crotalus lepidus
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by vemon on February 10, 2005
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who knows anything about color morphs is c. lepidus? cant find anything on the net. we have a book w/ a pic of a patternless lep. but gives no detail on the owner of the snake. would love to know anything. we have a lep. that has light grey bands w/no black. someone told us it might be a hypomelanistic, we are very doubtful. through research we have not been able to find any info on the subject matter. thanx for any and all replies.
Cayla and Ben Vanecek
SnakeBit Inkorporated
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RE: color morphs in crotalus lepidus
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by Cro on February 15, 2005
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There are many color morphs in Crotalus lepidus, ranging from Grey, Orange, Brown, Tan, and Reddish. I have observed hundreds of these snakes in extreme West Texas, and New Mexico, and there is a relation between the color of the lepidus, and the rock outcroppings they are found in. I believe these snakes do match the micro-habitat they live in. At one time the populations were all conected, but now they are often isolated to small, disjunct mountain ranges or even mountain outcropps or ridges, which are separated by low elevation desert areas. Lepidus does not like the desert flatlands, it likes living up in the rocks. I think that over time the local populations survived that matched the local rock colors, which helped protect them from predators like hawks and eagles. The ones that did not match were killed by predators, so there was some natural selection going on that allowed those that matched the habitat to survive. It is common to find "orange" lepidus on orange rock areas, and "grey" lepidus in grey rock areas. There are also areas where several color morphs share the same area. I am not sure why this happens, but it tends to be in rocky areas that are also heavily forested. The color morph matching is more noticed in barren rocky areas without much vegatation. I need to dig out some of my old photos that might show some examples of the lepidus morphs matching the local rock outcroppings. It is something that should be studied more. Dont know of any one who has published data on this subject that might help. Best Regards. Cro
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