============================================================================= | _T. g. gracilis_ | _T. g. hallowelli_ -----------------+-----------------------------+----------------------------- | | |Per cent | | |Per cent CHARACTERISTICS | | Mean |specimens | | Mean |specimens | Mean | (Kirn, |of Kirn, | Mean | (Kirn, |of Kirn, |(Kirn, |_et al._)|_et al._ | (Kirn, |_et al._)|_et al._ |_et al._|recalcu- |included |_et al._ |recalcu- |included | 1949) | lated |their |in 1949) | lated |in their | | by us |diagnosis | | by us |diagnosis -----------------+--------+---------+----------+---------+---------+--------- Ventrals--females|125.67 | 125.71 | 69.4 | 130.07 | 130.07 | 79.6 Ventrals--males |115.97 | 116.61 | 70.0 | 121.22 | 120.87 | 69.7 | | | | | | Caudals--females | 40.99 | 40.82 | 62.8 | 46.79 | 43.82 | 77.4 Caudals--males | 47.75 | 48.29 | 78.3 | 51.67 | 50.29 | 51.0 | | | | | | Tail L./total L. | | | | | | females | .1976| .1976| 69.0 | .2084| .2076| 74.2 Tail L./total L. | | | | | | males | .2336| .2362| 56.1 | .2477| .2423| 79.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The data presented by Kirn _et al._ do not demonstrate intergradation between two populations. Moreover, the diagnostic ranges of the number of subcaudals in males of _hallowelli_ and the ratio of tail length to total length in males of _gracilis_ do not include the recalculated means for those characteristics. Furthermore, the means for the following characteristics are dangerously close to being excluded from their respective "diagnostic" ranges: in _hallowelli_, the number of ventrals in males; in _gracilis_, the number of subcaudals in females, and the ratio of tail length to total length in females. It is incongruous that Kirn _et al._ state (p. 243) that "the coefficient of geographic divergence is .6 per degree latitude" for ventrals, and on the same page they state that "The average number of ventrals gradually increases toward the north in _Tantilla gracilis_ except in southern Oklahoma and central Arkansas (the area of intergradation between _T. g. gracilis_ and _T. g. hallowelli_) where the change seems to be more abrupt." The data presented in Kirn _et al._ (1949) do not demonstrate an abrupt change.