"We are not dicussing sientific names here but genetics. If one wants to call a certain animals a blue rocket ship there is nothing immoral about it. But assigning names to animals based on how each individual snake looks is just that. Otherwise the rest of herpetoculture thinks a ghost is a double het reccessive (axanthic x hypo) trait. That is what the assumption would be. Otherise it not set in stone or layed down by any scientific journals. Since when does herpetoculture listen to the academic community anyway?"

I think you mean Double homozygous, as in a specimen that is displaying two simple recessive traits (in this case anerytherism and hypomelanism) in their homozygous form.

However, this is also not always the case as, Hypomelanism is also a co-dominant trait in some species, in which the het actually displays the trait at about 50% of the severity that it would be if it were manifested in its homozygous form. In this situation a ghost would be a specimen that is hetrozygous for co-dominant hypomelanism that is also homozygous for simple recessive anerytherism.
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James Wilson
Pacific Coast Herpetological
www.pacificcoastherpetological.com

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