![]() Sexing: Telling apart male from female garters can be a very difficult task in the field. Note: Some garters in the Pacific Northwest are melanistic (they develop darker melanin skin pigments - the opposite of albinism). Western terrestrials have eight upper labial scales. The overall body coloration is usually gray or tan. The lateral stripes are dull yellow as well. The wandering garter snake has a narrow dull yellow dorsal stripe most often with black blotches that touch the dorsal stripe giving it a broken appearance. The only subspecies of the western terrestrial garter snake found in Western Washington is the wandering garter snake T. Western Terrestrial Garter Snake ( Thamnophis elegans): ordinoides is also the only Thamnophis species in Western WA that, at times, shows a red dorsal stripe. elegans by its small adult size, small head, and tendency to have small red blotches on the ventral scales. The northwestern garter snake can be differentiated from T. Northwesterns have seven upper labial scales. Some individuals show a black stripe behind the eye. The sides usually have a variable amount of black spotting (the black spots do not touch the dorsal stripe) and sometimes light white flecking is present as well. The color of the sides between the dorsal and lateral stripes can vary from black to brown to shades of gray. The lateral stripes have a similar range of colorations. The dorsal stripe can be red, yellow, tan, turquoise, greenish, blotched, or absent altogether. The northwestern garter snake is another extremely variable garter snake species. ![]() Northwestern Garter Snake ( Thamnophis ordinoides): sirtalis sub-species it must be kept in mind that variation can exist, and difficulty can still be found in placing garters down to sub-species in the field. Note: Even with the above mentioned delineation between T. The sides of the jaw are lighter in coloration. The sides of the body between the dorsal and lateral stripes have a series of red blotches. The sides of the body and the top of the head are black. ![]() T.s fitchi (valley garter snake) has a yellow dorsal stripe and similarly colored lateral stripes. The sides of the body are black with flecking that is usually the same color as the dorsal and lateral stripes but can occasionally be a red/orange coloration reminiscent of the conncinus and fitchi sub-species. T.s pickeringii (Puget Sound garter snake) has a turquoise to yellowish dorsal stripe and lateral stripes of the same color. The sides of the body are black with conspicuous red spots. T.s conncinus (red-spotted garter snake) has a solid-colored red or orange head with a wide yellow or green dorsal stripe and no lateral stripes. All common garter snake subspecies have seven upper labial scales. s pickeringii (Puget Sound lowlands) and T. and outer coast of the Olympic Peninsula), T. Three different sub-species of common garter snake have contiguous ranges in the area - T. The common garter snake is the most variable of the Thamnophis species in western WA. Common Garter Snake ( Thamnophis sirtalis): ![]()
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