|
1-2 of 2 messages
|
Page 1 of 1
|
|
Copperheads...
|
Reply
|
|
by Hellemar on November 13, 2001
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Hi...
I have some copperheads, all of them are bought as broadbanded copperheads. Some of them are much more colorful at the belly, but not as colorful as pictigasters I suppose, maybe it can be phaeogasters that I have ??? As far as I know, pictigaster are very colorful at their bellies, and phaeogasters are also colorful, but not that much...
Is there any other way to see the difference between these 3 kinds of spieses ?
Itīs time to hibernate them now, so Iīve gotta be sure about their spieces real soon...
Henke :)
|
| |
|
RE: Copperheads...
|
Reply
|
|
by bobby_neal on November 13, 2001
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Copperheads are one of my favorites... as far as telling laticinctus and pictigaster and phaeogaster apart, here is the easiest way (for me) to do it...
Look at how the belly pattern corresponds with the first few scale rows...
On a pictigaster, the whitish part of the ventral pattern will extend up into the crossbands... This forms little figures that look like upside down U's along the snakes first few scale rows where it meets the belly.
With laticinctus, the belly pattern will be more consistant with the crossbands, and the little white upside down U's that you see along the belly of a pictigaster won't be evident.
With phaeogaster, the belly pattern isn't as pretty as is seen with the other two races I mentioned. In phaeogaster, the ventral pattern does not tend to venture up into the dorsal scale rows, and some dark blotches of the ventral pattern will not even meet with the first dorsal scale row. Also, the dorsal tends to be more compressed along the backbone of the snake in comparison to the first few scale rows of pattern than in the other 2 subspecies mentioned.
If you have good quality pictures of the ventral patterns, where the ventral and dorasl pattern meet, and overall shots of the animals a more definate ID can be made.
Just for grins...
in southern copperheads (contortrix), the dorsal pattern tends to not to reach down to the first dorsal scale row in most cases, and the pattern is highly compressed along the backbone (sometimes 1-2 scales wide at the top), and crossbands that do not meet with corresponding crossbands on the other side is more common than in the other subspecies. The dark spots on the ventral surface tend to be light where they correspond with a crossband, and tend to be darker when they occur between dorsal crossbands.
Northern copperheads are similar to southern copperheads, but their crossbands tend to not be as compressed along the backbone as a southern, and dark spots in between crossbands are much more common. Also, the darkness of the belly pattern seems to be more uniform than that found in southern copperheads.
I hope this helps. Good luck with your snakes.
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
