radix vs maricanus differences?

[scorpion0151]

The bible is The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology by Rossman, Ford, and Seigel. A book we all use for garter snake info. Highly recommended...it can be found on amazon.com, you can usually find a used copy. If you could put pics up of your snakes, that would be good...we could have a look and try to confirm species for you.

wow that's quite expensive for a book

[guidofatherof5]

T.marcianus (Checkered garter snake)
Dorsal scales- maximum of 21 or 19 rows.
Supralabials 8, a distinctive head pattern (black-bordered brown area covering supralabials 7 or 8, bracketed anteriorly by a light area extending from postoculars to edge of the lip and posteriorly by a narrow light crescent, a third light area also extending from preoculars to edge of lip) lateral stripe confined to 3rd dorsal scale row on neck( rows 2 and 3 thereafter)

T.radix (Plains garter snake-)(most awesome snake )
Dorsal scales in a max. of 21 or 19 rows(frequently only 19 on neck)
Supralabials usually 7 or 8 and infralabials 9 or 10
Maxillary teeth 20 to 27, light lateral stripe usually confined to row 3 and 4, dark stops between light stripes occasionally obscured by dark ground color.
Supralabial sutures with black bars and/or wedges.

Hope this helps.

[BUSHSNAKE]

the only consistant difference is the lateral stripes

[EasternGirl]

It isn't a cheap book...this is true...but it is definitely worth every penny. I probably reference it once a day.

[scorpion0151]

I've taken some pics of my garters in question, I'll post a few at a time and what I think they are from the info I've got from here and see if I'm right or not

Amber



My guess it Maricanus but the checks not touching is throwing me unless she's a hybrid :/



Jon (was called Don but renamed after PinJohn as I got this little guy from him)




I think he's Maricanus




I'll post the others I would like confirming in a few days if that's ok?

[thamneil]

Looks like a marcianus to me and a good one at that. They can vary in colour quite a bit. Just my two cents.

-Neil

[guidofatherof5]

Beautiful snakes.
My first impression is they are both T.marcianus (Checkered garter snake)
With that being said I feel certain Jon is.
I would like to look at Amber awhile longer.

[chris-uk]

I'd say that they are both marcianus. Jon will definitely be a marcianus if you got him from Pinjohn last year (he had two marcianus litters, one normal x normal, and one albino x normal) we have one (and our friends have one) from that normal litter (unfortunately we had two FTT as well). I know for sure that John didn't have any other litters last year, so unless he's a small 2010 there's no doubt what Jon is.

I'd also agree that Amber is a marcianus. Quite a light colour in those pics, and like Steve I wouldn't be 100% about her being a marcianus.

[Invisible Snake]

Judging from those pics, they both appear to be marcianus aka checkered garter snakes.

[scorpion0151]

thanks for all your opinions, going by that I think I definatly have all maricanus and no radix.... well none til September anyway when I pickup my pair of Thamnophis radix erythristic ;p