An old dilemma ? pickeringii or ordinoides ?

[mikm]

Hello KITKAT, IMO ... that male is pickeringii . My male looks exactly like yours. I found Don's ordinoides pics & explanation very helpful, thanks Don.

_ Question for you ... In person does that male display any green ??? At times has he appeared more of a greenish blue and at other times just blue ?? Look closely at his 'blue' side scales for any green coloring particularly around the edges of of those 'sky blue' scales.

Sounds silly I know but my male has and does. I have read an early
field journal wherein pickeringii is described as 'seafoam green'. Interestingly enough when I research that color I find various color pallettes where 'it' is visually depictated as either a soft green or yes, a pastel blue.

This all began for me last weekend when I had a group of friends over for a cookout. While looking right at my male PUGET, someone asked what I had done with the 'green snake'. Five out of five people felt that he was not the same snake as 'this snake' they were now looking at was 'blue'. One last factor was that he had just shed a few days prior.

I intend to try and capture this with pics as I believe it may be attributing to the confusion. I suspect the majority of 'bob's' snakes to be pickeringii and unbeknownst to him, he occasionally scores a few ordinoides within the mix. I suspect the ordinoides color to be a static 'blue'.

those are my thoughts anyway ... enjoy your day !!!

[mikm]

For example ... both of the following examples from different color palette sources labeled seafoam green ===>





I'm just sayin' ... LOL

[KITKAT]

Well, I am glad I do not have a male of one and a female of the other!

Now I will just add ordinoides to my wish list...

And my male has never looked even slightly green, IMHO. He is always robin's egg blue... but I rarely, if ever, have him outside in natural light.

[Cazador]

Though I'd post this blue T. ordinoides from Bob in the same thread with Don's normally colored ordinoides for comparison.

As for advise, Brian, I think the only way you're going to be able to do nearly simultaneous scale counts is based on photos. One thing that might help is to verify which scale rows the light blue stripes are on. They should be on rows 2 & 3. Then you can take your picture from above the scale rows and use the top of the blue stripe as "row 3." You know to take the picture in the middle of the snake (1/2 way from head to tail), then zoom in on the picture and count upward, starting at row three to the middle (vertebral) stripe. Just to be safe, I'll mention to include the vertebral strip in your count; double the number, and subtract one.

If you wait till they all shed, I'm sure you'll lose track of which skin belongs to which of your ten snakes. Best wishes,

Rick