Citizen Science, taxonomy and grass snakes: iNaturalist helps to clarify variation of coloration and pattern in Natrix natrix subspecies

Abstract

We used a dataset of georeferenced photos of 5,751 grass snakes from iNaturalist to evaluate subspecific variation of Natrix natrix in coloration and pattern. Our results provide evidence that all four genetically delineated subspecies differ morphologically, although unstriped individuals of N. n. vulgaris are difficult to tell apart from the nominotypical subspecies. The iNaturalist dataset shows that the frequency of dark body coloration increases from south to north and from west to east. This trend is both concordant with taxonomic variation (the easternmost subspecies, N. n. scutata, being the darkest taxon) and variation within the same subspecies (in N. n. natrix and N. n. scutata more northern populations harbor more dark or melanistic individuals than more southern populations). Although available characters were limited to coloration and pattern traits, our study suggests that photo material from iNaturalist and similar platforms can be a valuable data source for studies on morphological variation. However, investigations using such databases can only supplement, but not replace, studies using museum material because only then measureable, meristic and genetic characters will be accessible.