This is basically meant to be a change of subject, but a continuation of the thread conversation going on here: http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/bree...ed-help-5.html.

I would really value stefan-A's input, among others regarding divergence/convergence.

I found a picture of a handsome garter found locally near Yakima, WA, in 2008, near a river. I believe the account to be true, and the specimen pictured to be true to location. It is supposed to be T. elegans, and for the most part, it does appear to be just that. But... it looks a heck of a lot like T. s. concinnus with those red/orange spots.

First, I'll show you the picture, then I'll suggest a theory about the specimen shown since...

it is far outside the range of T.s. concinnus: Yakima, WA 2008, ID'd as T. elegans

Picture:


Since this specimen was found near a river that, if followed downstream, meets up with the Columbia river, it's not to far of a stretch to imply that this is a color morph of T. elegans; could have, and likely would have ended up being involuntarily transported to extreme SW/WA - NW/OR on numerous possible times during a series of floods occurring between 13,000yrs ago to as late as the 1940's or 50's.

While concinnus are considered a small-range subspecies of T. sirtalis, could it be that T. s. concinnus is really just a recently isolated pocket of intergrades? Local herp experts have suggested that the variation among local concinnus (some have no side stripes, some do, some have lime green stripes, some are very yellow) is due first, to a divergence among sirtalis resulting in elegans, then later, an intergrade situation helped along by transporting floods, followed by isolation once again. After all, concinnus territory was once the last huge flood plain between Yakima, tri-cities, and the pacific, and the floods happened many times in thousands of years. I cannot dig more than 3 inches in my backyard in Vancouver, WA without finding smooth, round, "river rock". It was once part of the Columbia river, and Vancouver Lake (thick with concinnus) was isolated from the columbia, only a few thousand years ago. Before that isolation, ALL of SW WA and NW oregon was under water.

In other words, what is considered T. s. concinnus, could actually be a recently isolated population of intergrades between two past diverging subspecies, joined once again, isolated by area and time, to become what is now called T. s. concinnus.

What do you think?