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Posted by troy h on February 23, 2001 at 14:57:33:
the thread below about janseni got me thinking about the mess that is "elaphe". having kept or handled a variety of these species, i know that they are a real mess (as does everyone else). i wish someone would tackle the systematics of the group as a whole, though, instead of doing it piecemeal like dowling did when he elevated senticolis and bogertophis . . .
here's my "gestalt" unsupported by evidence taxonomic groupings that i suspect are "real"
N american "elaphe" - obsoleta, guttata, vulpina
Eurasian "elaphe" - dione, quaturolineata, scalaris, schrenki, climacophora, and bimaculata in one group; longissima, persica, situla, and hohenackeri in another
"mandarina" group - mandarina, porphyracea, conspicillata
"trinket" group - helenae, taeniura, radiata, frenata, prasina, hodgsoni
"gonyosoma" - janseni, oxycephala (note the microdermatoglyphics of oxycephala are very different from radiata)
"carinata" - carinata, quadrivittata
"american desert ratsnakes" - both bogertophis and senticolis - to me, these are very very similar animals, even though senticolis is largely diurnal - flavirufra probably also goes with these snakes
odds and sods - davidi (who knows?), mollendorfi seems very different from other elaphe, although i guess it seems closest to the large eurasian group, rufodorsata which just ain't even close!
i know i've left out a few of the more obscure species, but thought i'd fish for comments on these arrangements.
and does anyone know of their is a name already on the books that could be used if someone were to split the eurasian and american "elaphe"? i know that the first member of the genus described was a quaturolineata, so the name "elaphe" would stick with the european stuff.
