Red Spotted Garter Snake

[ConcinusMan]

I'll take the opportunity to jump in and point out that the scientific name should be seen more as a tag, than an accurate, all-encompassing description.

I agree. They are still the same species as far as the current classification goes. So are T.s. parietalis and T.s. pickeringii. I think we had the discussion before, that the only thing that makes a subspecies is range and morph differences. Quite often the separation of subspecies is facilitated by a geographic barrier such as a mountain range. It appears that where a geographic barrier does not exist, or is weak, the morph differences tend to also get weak.