Really nice snake Sid. That is a stripe! We have been talking about stripe no stripe, so it seems that the stripe acts as kind of a boundary for the spots. In other words the more distinct the stripe, the less likely that the spots will cross over the back. I guess that is petty obvious, but look at the photos in this months photo contest, some of the dorsal stripe scales are actually two tone. That looks like a genetic trait (rather than a color variation) to me, and the stripeless snakes (Maritime or eastern) are in fact genetically different from the striped easterns. Another thing that I have noticed is the stripeless snakes also lack the distinctive vertical bars under the eye. Could be part of the trait. Anyway just thought I would toss this out for discussion.
