Hi,

Me and my Dad are confused, which is not a good thing when you are providing links to back ground, care sheets etc. on all reptile species on the web. This one has got us running in circles.

We have viewed the posts on the species is this forum and think we are on the right track. But your comments would be appreciated.

From Reptiles: Asian Beauty Snakes (Elaphe taeniura)[/color]we have picked up the following:-

E. t. taeniura - this subspecies is found in Eastern China. The dorsal pattern (looking from directly above) is ladder-like.

E. t. yunnanensis - this subspecies has a wide range, from Burma, China, India, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The dorsal pattern is made up of crossbars or X's.

E. t. friesi - this is the true Taiwan subspecies. The dorsal pattern is 2 rows of strong blotches, which gradually become ladderlike.

E. t. mocquardi - this subspecies is found in southern China and northern Vietnam. The dorsal pattern shows 2 rows of thin blotches, which may be connected to each other (in the same row) with thin lines.

E. t. schmackeri - this subspecies is found in the Japanese Ryu-kyu's. The dorsal pattern is made up of very indistinct blotches. A second characteristic is that the usually strong "eye patch" is very indistinct in this subspecies.

E. t. grabowski - this subspecies is found in Borneo and Sumatra. There is no strong pattern against the dark background, and lacks strong striping throughout the body.

E. t. ridleyi - this subspecies is found in peninsular Malaysia. There are crisp stripes along the body with no interfering patterns.

What we are trying to do is relate this info to pictures of typical specimens.

So far we think the E. t. ridleyi has a blue shading on the top of the head and is the species that lives in caves. Anyway that is the basis of the contents of our page on this species. Rat Snakes (Cave Dwelling)(Elaphe taeniura ridlei)


The second species that we have published data on is E. t. friesi Wheres it is stated that the "The dorsal pattern is 2 rows of strong blotches, which gradually become ladderlike." we see more of a stripe than ladderlike.

Here again our page on this species refers links to some pics etc. Taiwan Beauty Snake (Elaphe taeniura friesi)

We still need to research the rest but think we have a handle on E. t. taeniura which is brown and has a very much ladder-like marking.

The problem on is the Blue Beauty. We picked up a site but they do not seem to specify the latin name. See Vietnamese Blue Beauties

We believe this to be E. t. grabowski!

We have not done a detailed search on the rest yet, but comments on progress to date and any help, in relating the species to an ID picture would be a great help.

Regards
Bjorn
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Hello,

I do not believe that you are going to particularly care for my response as it doesn't answer your question. It instead offers some insight into what it is you are trying to do.

Unless I misunderstood your first post, you are basically creating a facts site with links to caresheets and information found on the internet. You will likely include your own care facts and sheets as well based off of the information you are linking to.

It is never a good idea to try and write information on animals you have no experience with. I say this because look at the situation you are in now. You have found a website and are basing your information off of what THEY say. Who is to say THEY are correct?

Lets say you base your images off of what you have found on the internet and the information isn't accurate? All you would be doing is spreading more "bad" information as the images wouldn't be depicting the true specimen.

I realize this post isn't what you wanted to see, but its the reality based on what it is you are creating. I would check some encyclopedias btw. Most encyclopedias will contain an image of the species.

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