Estella Schiller at Mark O'Shea

It is also among California's rarest snakes. It has been official designated as "Endangered" on State lists since 1966, and was on the first Federal Endangered Species List established in 1973. Once common in stock ponds and small marshes in San Mateo County on the San Francisco Peninsula-Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia
Hi Mark, I hope you dont mind me posting, Im wondering or I was told by one of my UK friends that this species is owned or keeped by some in the UK?

Mark O'Shea I remember the late Luke Yeomans has specimens way back in the 80s or 90s. The San Francisco garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia was considered endangered and confined to the water courses on SF airport. However it turns out that the type specimen of Thamnophis s. infernalis is actually a specimen from of the taxon formerly known as T.s.tetrataenia and since infernalis is the older name it has priority. This also extends the range of this snake outside the airport boundaries to encompass the entire SF Peninsula. It should therefore be known as T.s.infernalis and not T.s.tetrataenia. See Rossman, Ford & Seigal 1996 The Garter Snakes: Evolution and Ecology. The latest editions (6th) of Standard COmmon and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles and Crocodilians (Collins & Taggart 2009) also omits tetrataenia in favour of infernal is. As for the rarest US snake, I thought that might be the San Joaquin coachwhip, Masticophis flagellum ruddocki, or the Brazos watersnake, Nerodia harteri.

Adam Radovanovic I keep 2.3 of these at the zoo and they are absolutely stunning snakes. Very small gene pool exists within UK private and zoological institutions which means we are seeing many health issues and ailments.

Meg Francoeur Stunning animal. Too bad they are so endangered.

Fons Sleijpen Where can I find this, Marc?

Mark O'Shea Except T.s.tetrataenia is a synonym of T.s.infernalis, the name tetrataenia is no longer the valid name.

Mark O'Shea Well for a start I reference two publications above in my first post which use infernalis over tetrataenia. The type specimen of infernalis was found to be a specimen of what was at the time known as tetrataenia and since infernalis was the older name it had priority. The Collins & Taggart checklist is the official list for N.America that all publications use for standardising scientific and common names.

Fons Sleijpen Ok, thank you.

Fons Sleijpen As I understand correctly is infernalis and tetrataenia now the same subspecies. And will it be possible for Americans to keep it in a terrarium. At least in the states where they are allowed to keep infernalis? There will be a lot of happy people overthere...

Mark O'Shea No Greg, previously tetrataenia was a rare ssp. confined to the airport environs and infernalis was a somewhat more widely distributed ssp. on the peninsula. Now the latter contains both forms, there is no such thing as tetrataenia anymore. The type of infernalis was what later became known as tetrataenia, they are one and the same. Fons is correct in his understanding, they are the same.Estella

Schiller Thank you Mark for reply !

Greg Watkins-Colwell Did I delete my own comments? Oy. Getting used to new iPad. Any way, needs a neotype. But in the mean time I betcha that USFWS will continue to protect it. Or at least state of California will, even outside the air port. They can even list populations as protected regardless of ICZN rules.

Greg Watkins-Colwell CA may already protect infernalis regardless. I haven't looked.

Jackson Shedd Aside from tetrataenia/infernalis taxonomy, Giant garters (T. gigas) are far more restricted by available extant suitable habitat and are more specialized than M. f. ruddocki. If you consider the Alameda whipsnake (M. l. euryxanthus) a valid taxon, it too is more restricted in both habitat and distribution than M. f. ruddocki.

Thats it up to now...