A hypo or hypomelanistic boa is one that has less black pigment (melanin) than normal. Think of it as a catchall term. Salmons, pastels, orangetails and possibly some others have less melanin than a normal boa but for different reasons. So do T-positive boas, but people will scream like a wounded buffalo if you call them hypos.

Rich Ihle's breeding results showed that his hypomelanistic snakes were hypos because of a dominant mutant gene that he named "salmon". Orangetails may also be produced by a dominant mutant gene, but there is no guarantee that the orangetail mutant and the salmon mutant are the same or even related mutant genes. Pastels are supposed to be a line selectively bred to be lighter colored than normal.

As others have already written, most of the hypos and probably 99% of the DH sunglows out there are salmons.

Paul Hollander

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