Excellent article, Daniel.


By the time I ever herped the glades (1969), I could never find a place where the deep orange animals were consistent. They seemed to be hit and miss with every variation in between them and typical yellows.

I had a conversation with L.E. Thompson in Clewiston who was a top provider of these animals back then, but he was quick to point me to an area where they were "more common", and made a point that many there were also just yellow.

Around 1974ish, feeling more comfortable to ask Ross Allen about this, he just gave me that showman grin and said something to the effect, "there are some real orange ones down there."

IMHO, even with the extensive sugar cane areas, it's become harder and harder for me to believe that the orange, red-tongued phase was the geographical separate and standard, and that the yellows managed to travel so quickly over such a broad expanse.
It seems that there is just allot of variance, south of the big lake, and maybe always was!

As mentioned, there is no reason not to breed for these wonderful colors.
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Regards, Bill McGighan

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