They keep changing things. (Black ratsnake)

[rmb...@istar.ca]

So when I was a kid, we called them black snakes. Later I was
corrected and told to call them black ratsnakes. Life goes on, and
then they were gray ratsnakes. And now, this season, I am corrected
yet again on iNaturalist when we see the name changed to central
ratsnakes. I told Charlie about this, and as you can see, he is
unimpressed.

Rose-Marie, north of Perth Road Village

[I Macaulay]

Kind of like copper belly vs red belly, 

I have heard rat snakes being called many other things, often in panic.

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
    Don't Forget to Save the Stamps

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NatureList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to naturelist+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/naturelist/20260724195246.12802esmku2g62mm%40webmail.ca.inter.net.

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 7/24/2026 7:52 PM, rmb...@istar.ca wrote:
> So when I was a kid, we called them black snakes.  Later I was corrected
> and told to call them black ratsnakes.  Life goes on, and then they were
> gray ratsnakes.  And now, this season, I am corrected yet again on
> iNaturalist when we see the name changed to central ratsnakes.  I told
> Charlie about this, and as you can see, he is unimpressed.

* ...and from a study Patrick Weatherhead did back at the dawn of
biochemical systematics, our Frontenac Arch population is a hybrid swarm
between the "Central Rat Snake" and the "Eastern Rat Snake,
demonstrating that they are subspecies, and that the English species
name should revert to "Black Rat Snake." Even wikipedia says - "The
species readily hybridizes with P. quadrivittatus in the east and P.
obsoletus in the west. This hybridization creates large zones of
taxonomic uncertainty, where species-level identification can be
difficult." - but of course if they hybridize they're not different
species...

As for the "Ratsnake" abomination -

Do Dragons fly? In forming English names from an adjective and the name
of an analogous taxon (i.e., of which the named group is not a member),
join the adjective and wrong‑taxon name as a single word, but if the
named group is a member of the larger taxon, use separate words, as noun
and adjective. Thus "Dragonfly" versus “Horse Fly” and (contra
traditional herpetological usage) "Bull Frog," & (contra
herpeto-vernacular innovation) "Ribbon Snake," versus “Waterdog” and
"Mudpuppy."

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------