In past posts I've shown some surprising variations (polymorphism) in WC red spotted garters (T. s. concinnus). Now its time to show some cool variations of T. s. pickeringii.

Sometimes the line between subspecies' outer appearance, and even their ranges, gets blurred. What is clear is that T. s. concinnus and T. s. pickeringii are on a genetic level, essentially the same snake. Their ranges even meet or perhaps overlap. The farther north you go out of concinnus' range, the more they start resembling fitchi or pickeringi. Likewise, certain pockets of pickeringi, especially near the Lewis County/Thurston county line, often resemble concinnus' or fitchi. If you didn't know where they came from, subspecies of T. sirtalis can be impossible to distinguish from one another visually.

Joe said something about this once or twice...

Subspecies... sometimes I wonder. I wonder about their validity or even the need for the splitting, particularly with western sirtalis'.

Sure, there are examples more "typical" of the pickeringi subspecies found in certain parts of the Puget lowlands, and there are "typical" concinnus' found in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon, but that leaves a lot of miles of habitat for both subspecies, and a lot of snakes that just don't fit the subspecies descriptions neatly.

Like I said... If you didn't know where they came from, subspecies of T. sirtalis can be near impossible to distinguish from one another. With that said again, I'm calling these snakes (T. sirtalis pickeringi) Puget Sound garters (to me they're just way cool T. sirtalis') because I have seen all of these variations, and more, through out much of the pickeringi range I have explored, and likewise I've seen much variation in concinnus' even where ranges do not overlap.

Snakes like these (and these individuals pictured) are found from Dupont, WA , south to Olympia and as far as Chehalis, WA with much variation (even within a single localized population). I think that makes them pickeringi...

Doesn't it???

All T. s. pickeringi. From the Chehalis area to Tacoma, (and even beyond) you are likely to find any of these different looking ones:

Image colors are very close, if not dead-on accurate but I can't vouch for your monitor settings.

Female shedding: (Thurston Co.)