Native Virginia Herp Trivia/Identification!!!!!

I will try to do this once a week. I will try to either ask a question or post a picture and see if you guys can figure out the answer....

So to start this off... let's see if you can guess the critter:

eastern gartersnake

There are many different subspecies classifications of garter snake. The eastern garter snake's latin name is Thamnophis sirtalis.

Neat little fella!

The scientific name Thamnophis sirtalis encompasses 12 subspecies:

T. s. annectens Brown, 1950—Texas Gartersnake
T. s. concinnus (Hallowell, 1852)—Red-spotted Gartersnake
T. s. dorsalis (Baird and Girard, 1853)—New Mexico Gartersnake
T. s. fitchi Fox, 1951—Valley Gartersnake
T. s. infernalis (Blainville, 1835)—California Red-sided Gartersnake
T. s. pallidulus Allen, 1899—Maritime Gartersnake
T. s. parietalis (Say, 1823)—Red-sided Gartersnake
T. s. pickeringii (Baird and Girard, 1853)—Puget Sound Gartersnake
T. s. semifasciatus Cope, 1892—Chicago Gartersnake
T. s. similis Rossman, 1965—Blue-striped Gartersnake
T. s. sirtalis (Linnaeus, 1758)—Eastern Gartersnake
T. s. tetrataenia (Cope, 1875)—San Francisco Gartersnake

To specify the eastern gartersnake the subspecies term needs to be included:
Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis = eastern garter snake. (The only gartersnake found in VA)

The term "Latin name" is somewhat misleading as most scientific names contain both Greek and Latin components. For example:
Thamnophis is derived from the Greek words thamnos which means "bush" and ophio meaning "snake". Sirtalis is Latin and means "like a garter".

Thanks JW!!

BTW: JW if you want to post some of your wonderful pics here as a trivia...please feel free.

Larry, feel free to use any of my photos for ID quizzes.

King Cobra

MADKATTER wrote:

King Cobra

Hey that's MY LINE!!!!

MADKATTER wrote:

King Cobra

That was going to be my second guess but I wasn't sure if they were native to Virginia.

zues wrote:

MADKATTER wrote:

King Cobra

That was going to be my second guess but I wasn't sure if they were native to Virginia.

Well if they were native, I sure hope that they are scared away by the smell of poop, because that is exactly what I would be filling my shorts with if I were to run across one.

What's so scary about this????

leftoflarry wrote:

What's so scary about this????

That the person who photo shopped it, didn't do a very good job.

Don, i'm not so sure this is photoshopped, king cobras are truly that big.

The bottom pic looks real. The other one - look at the hands. The hands almost miss the snake, especially the top one. Also look along where the snake comes to around his shirt tail. The shirt and snake look off, also true of the pants. Looks like photo shop work to me.

Also checked out Cobra Man. Did you see the red headed Krait? Now that is a cool looking snake.

well perhaps you are correct. However, I do know king cobras do get that large.

Yes..the red headed krait is gorgeous.

Did you check out his bite injuries at the bottom?

THis is the website that first pic of the cobra came from...so..I don't know. http://www.funlokam.com/wow-mr-krishna-ghule-handling-a-king-cobra-t2502.html

Yea those bite pics are pretty bad. That is why I don't work with hots.

Calculated risk. But yeah..these pics should make someone think twice about working with hots.