just wondering

[greene]

Is the common garter snake the only garter snake species In the U.S that has full species status?

[kibakiba]

"common" either refers to whatever you consider common, or an eastern garter snake. There are many species of garter that have "full species status"

[greene]

I mean eastern garter snake. Is the ribbon snake a garter species?

[kibakiba]

Yes, it is. There are different species of ribbon snake, too. They all fall under Thamnophis.

[EasternGirl]

Well, actually, technically the species of Thamnophis sirtalis is the Common Garter Snake...and any subspecies falling under that species could be considered a Common Garter Snake...according to The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology. (Right? For those of you that have the book...am I reading that correctly?). But like Chantel said, most of the time when people refer to the common garter snake, they are referring to easterns....the subspecies Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. And like Chantel said, there are many species of garters and ribbons.

[chris-uk]

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Well, actually, technically the species of Thamnophis sirtalis is the Common Garter Snake...and any subspecies falling under that species could be considered a Common Garter Snake...according to The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology. (Right? For those of you that have the book...am I reading that correctly?). But like Chantel said, most of the time when people refer to the common garter snake, they are referring to easterns....the subspecies Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. And like Chantel said, there are many species of garters and ribbons.

I don't think you have that right. I think when an animal has been classified into a subspecies the common name for the subspecies applies, and not the common name of the parent species. In the case of T. sirtalis, you wouldn't call a tetrataenia, infernalis, or concinnus a "Common Garter" - they have been classified as subspecies with their own common name, therefore you wouldn't use the common name for the species they belong to when you have a more accurate subspecies name.

[EasternGirl]

Well, the reason I said that is because in the book, it has a section for Common Garter Snake...and it starts the section title: Thamnophis sirtalis, Common Garter Snake, and then lists all of the subspecies. Do you have the book Chris? It's on page 259. So it's giving the impression that one could classify all of those subspecies as the common garter and that T.sirtalis is the common garter. So I'm not sure...

[EasternGirl]

Okay...wait...I'm half asleep...I just reread what you wrote. I get what you are saying now. So you are saying then...that Common Garter would apply to T.sirtalis as a species as a whole but not to each individual subspecies that fall under that category since they have their own specific name? Right...gotcha. Then why do people often refer to easterns as common garters?

[kibakiba]

As far as I know, they are the most wide spread garter... I think.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...I think you're right.