First El Dorado County Speckled King?

[Porter]

Question for the California kingsnake people... I have not read Brian's book, however I vaguely remember a convo I had with him about California speckled kingsnake morphs of Yolo county. I don't remember exactly what was said...but I want to say I remember Hubbs telling me that kingsnakes color fade with age. I think that was in regards to me showing him an El Dorado county individual (just a coincidence, not specific to this convo) that looked very light brown and almost white. I was asking him if it was a hypo, I think... The one I found last weekend happens to be light brown as well. I've found a newly born speckled morph in Yolo county. So, I know the morphage is there from birth. However, do the speckled King-morphs fade, resulting in getting more speckles... and do normal CA kingsnakes fade, resulting in speckling... or does the fading only refer to the color becoming lighter? I've never kept a Kingsnake as a pet for very long, so I would not know.

My reason for asking is this partially speckled king I found this past 4th of July weekend. I went out because it was a full moon and even tho it turned out to be more the usual full moon experience, I did find this one snake. It had speckling only one side of the body. Extending Only about 6 -8 bands down from the neck. The speckles look the same in shape to the Yolo county morphs. However, they are all the same color. Whereas the Yolo county morphs have mint/sage green and yellow speckles mixed with the base colored speckled.

Is this a legit El Dorado County speckled king morph? If so, is it the first record found of a speckled morph in El Dorado County? Is it the first speckled king morph found in any other county than Yolo? There's a huge gap between the populations and the color difference suggests and confirms a different phenotype (correct?). Also, the El Dorado individual looks to have fading on the head, either from birth or old age.

Let me know the verdict! Here's screenshots of the snake in comparison to the 3 specks I found in Yolo earlier this year:




Yolo County

IMG_7343 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7344 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7342 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr







El Dorado County

IMG_7335 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7336 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7337 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7338 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7339 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7340 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr

IMG_7341 by Artistic Memoirs of Field Herping, on Flickr