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Posted by regalringneck on February 17, 2003 at 07:48:21:
In Reply to: Could this be D.c. orizabensis? (PIC) posted by chrish on February 17, 2003 at 02:00:43:
but then again, as the beast & its habitat are contiguous to the N....it may well be a spanish hissing erebenus! I, like many, reject subspp. classification w/o geographic or ecologic isolating mechanisms. Had it not exhibited a white chin, I'd be wanting it to be the other zopilote...a musurrana!!
:I've posted this pic here before and wondered about it's subspecific identity. It is from southern Veracruz in the foothills inland from the coastal plain (from the cuota north of Tierra Blanca, Ver). To be honest, I hadn't ever bothered looking into it in any detail (nor had I really stopped to think about how close to Orizaba this animal was found).
:I was just looking at the German site Dean recommends below and reading what little is known about this ssp. Apparently, it is an all dark snake with a white throat (using a Google translation of the site). Seems like a pretty good description of this animal.
:According to Smith and Taylor's Snakes of Mexico (1945), D.c. orizabensis is supposed to range along the coastal foothills of Southern Veracruz, just west of the isthmus.
:Along the coast itself, erebennus and melanurus meet somewhere in northern Veracruz. So according to Smith and Taylor, a snake from this far south in Veracruz would either be melanurus on the coast, or orizabensis inland. This snake doesn't appear to be melanurus in any way (and was found in the foothills inland).
:Could this be what was described as D.c. orizabensis? I can't seem to come to any other conclusion.
